Eutrusca
09-05-2006, 22:07
COMMENTARY: A war of words, or something more serious?
Palestinian Religious Leader
Blasts Christian Zionists (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200605/INT20060509d.html)
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
May 09, 2006
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - A supreme judge of the Palestinian shari'a court system says Christian Zionists have adopted "Satan as God" and are trying to destroy Islam and Muslims.
In an article posted on the official Palestinian Authority website of the shari'a courts, Hamed R.B. Al-Tamimi blasted the Christian Zionist movement because, he charged, it "supports the Zionist enemy [Israel] and unconditionally opposes Islam and the Muslims."
(A translation of the article was provided by the Palestinian Media Watch, an independent media watchdog.)
Christian Zionists belong to Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical churches throughout the world and are among Israel's most faithful supporters.
They believe that the modern State of Israel is a fulfillment of biblical promises and prophecies that the Jewish people would return to the land they consider to be their eternal, divine inheritance.
In the United States, many Christian Zionists are politically conservative Evangelical Christians.
"Their association and their organizations, headed by The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, carry out their criminal activities against the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian people," Al-Tamimi said in the article.
Al-Tamimi, appointed to his post by P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, also accused Christian Zionists of leading the push to create the State of Israel. And he said they are spearheading current British and U.S. policies toward the P.A., Iraq, Afghanistan and other Arab and Muslim countries.
"They [Christian Zionists] are a group who adopted Satan as God who drives their crazy nature. They have praised depravity and cursed virtue, they have turned the moral scale upside down," he said.
The ICEJ, which represents millions of Christians worldwide, issued a low-key response to the article, saying it had borne the brunt of similar "baseless and embittered criticisms" in the past from both official and unofficial Palestinian sources.
"We prefer to ignore them and continue undeterred with our biblical mandate to 'comfort' the Jewish people," said David Parsons, ICEJ media director.
"The ICEJ maintains that Christians can promote peace in the Holy Land by supporting Israel's right to live in peace and security" so Israel can "peacefully negotiate with her Palestinian and Arab neighbors all the difficult issues facing the region," Parsons said in a statement.
While the ICEJ sympathizes with the plight of the Palestinians, he said, "This should not lead anyone to take strident anti-Israel or anti-Semitic positions."
Hamas, Fatah share the same religious ideology
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, said this is not the first time that P.A. officials have blasted Christian Zionists. He noted that Al-Tamimi has the support of Abbas' Fatah faction.
Marcus noted that the religious ideology of Hamas and the PLO (Fatah) is the one and the same: They are all "planning to destroy us," he said.
It was the Fatah-led P.A. that published Palestinian textbooks and ran Palestinian television shows full of hatred for Israel, Marcus said.
Marcus said he fears that if the Hamas government falls and Abbas' Fatah faction sweeps back into power, the international community will be so glad to be rid of Hamas that it might give Abbas everything he asks for. "That's the real danger," he said.
Palestinian Religious Leader
Blasts Christian Zionists (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200605/INT20060509d.html)
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
May 09, 2006
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - A supreme judge of the Palestinian shari'a court system says Christian Zionists have adopted "Satan as God" and are trying to destroy Islam and Muslims.
In an article posted on the official Palestinian Authority website of the shari'a courts, Hamed R.B. Al-Tamimi blasted the Christian Zionist movement because, he charged, it "supports the Zionist enemy [Israel] and unconditionally opposes Islam and the Muslims."
(A translation of the article was provided by the Palestinian Media Watch, an independent media watchdog.)
Christian Zionists belong to Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical churches throughout the world and are among Israel's most faithful supporters.
They believe that the modern State of Israel is a fulfillment of biblical promises and prophecies that the Jewish people would return to the land they consider to be their eternal, divine inheritance.
In the United States, many Christian Zionists are politically conservative Evangelical Christians.
"Their association and their organizations, headed by The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, carry out their criminal activities against the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian people," Al-Tamimi said in the article.
Al-Tamimi, appointed to his post by P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, also accused Christian Zionists of leading the push to create the State of Israel. And he said they are spearheading current British and U.S. policies toward the P.A., Iraq, Afghanistan and other Arab and Muslim countries.
"They [Christian Zionists] are a group who adopted Satan as God who drives their crazy nature. They have praised depravity and cursed virtue, they have turned the moral scale upside down," he said.
The ICEJ, which represents millions of Christians worldwide, issued a low-key response to the article, saying it had borne the brunt of similar "baseless and embittered criticisms" in the past from both official and unofficial Palestinian sources.
"We prefer to ignore them and continue undeterred with our biblical mandate to 'comfort' the Jewish people," said David Parsons, ICEJ media director.
"The ICEJ maintains that Christians can promote peace in the Holy Land by supporting Israel's right to live in peace and security" so Israel can "peacefully negotiate with her Palestinian and Arab neighbors all the difficult issues facing the region," Parsons said in a statement.
While the ICEJ sympathizes with the plight of the Palestinians, he said, "This should not lead anyone to take strident anti-Israel or anti-Semitic positions."
Hamas, Fatah share the same religious ideology
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, said this is not the first time that P.A. officials have blasted Christian Zionists. He noted that Al-Tamimi has the support of Abbas' Fatah faction.
Marcus noted that the religious ideology of Hamas and the PLO (Fatah) is the one and the same: They are all "planning to destroy us," he said.
It was the Fatah-led P.A. that published Palestinian textbooks and ran Palestinian television shows full of hatred for Israel, Marcus said.
Marcus said he fears that if the Hamas government falls and Abbas' Fatah faction sweeps back into power, the international community will be so glad to be rid of Hamas that it might give Abbas everything he asks for. "That's the real danger," he said.