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 American (who became a Turkish 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/conservative leaders (WorldNetDaily, Family Research
Council, John Hagee Ministries, American Center for Law and Justice,
and OneNewsNow, etc.) all parrot ADL/Israel’s justification for
the flotilla attack. Evangelical sympathy with Israel grows so quickly
that 39 percent of respondents to a WorldNetDaily poll believe Israel
should have sunk the entire flotilla!
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/conservative
authorities do more than lead their followers into a trap ADL/Israel
has set for believers everywhere. They help to create it.
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)
