IDF soldiers silence Israeli apartheid at local church

As Israel’s apartheid occupation of Gaza continues, more Americans are hearing reports of its brutal Zionist policies. These reports are slowly eroding the American public’s perception of this close United States military ally. To silence those reports, Zionist PR experts are fueling the fire of Christian fundamentalism (some of which are Christian Zionists) and its focus on the end times, where, according to its extreme and literal interpretations of scripture, Israel plays a pivotal role as “God’s chosen people.”

The Zionists are also raising political clout to ensure that the powerful Israeli lobby in Washington DC doesn’t lose influence. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) remains one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington DC, a group so powerful that not once has funding or support for Israel been denied over the past 35 years. Indeed, during that same time span, the US has vetoed dozens of United Nations resolutions condemning Israel for war crimes and other breaches of International law as well as refuted the Goldstone report that detailed the brutal war crimes Israel committed during the December 2008-January 2009 Operation Cast Lead, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 civilians in Gaza (12 Israelis, ten of them soldiers, lost their lives during this month-long attack on the occupied territory).

Now that we have an African American president in office, a president who has recently and quite timidly raised concerns about Israel’s expanding settlements, an influential Christian Pro-Israeli organization, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), is taking their message to African American churches.  Along with the Zionist front-group, Stand With Us, they are sponsoring Israeli soldiers on a speaking tour through Europe and United States. Two of those soldiers brought their message to Grand Rapids on Sunday October 17, specifically to an African American church, Word of Faith Christian Center, 3030 Eastern Ave. SE, in Wyoming. As the refrains of “Prepare the way for the coming of the son,” the sanctuary filled with folks who had been hoodwinked into believing that the Israeli military is a present day army of God.

“It was clear to me what was going on there. It was part of the Pro Israeli lobby making inroads into the American political system in not so subtle ways,” said one African American man attending the service who was not a congregation member. “What was most disturbing, while not surprising, was that politicians always find a use for black people.’This is what we can use them for next.’  You can get people to do whatever you want them to do if you convince them ‘this is what God wants’ them to do. If Black America’s Christian faithful believe that these people wearing these funny caps are the people of the Bible from 2,000 years ago, then everything Israel does is holy and cannot be challenged.”

Indeed, much of what Israel is doing during its illegal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank needs to challenged. The human rights abuses here have reduced a healthy, hard working people into a population of refugees living in tents. Those who still have homes never know when an Israeli bulldozer might come to demolish it. Towering cement walls, which dwarf the former Berlin Wall, separate families from each other and from their places of employment.

Checkpoints restrict movement to school, work and medical care. Palestinians are often detained at them for eight or ten hours and routinely beaten and arrested. Because of the damage Israeli military strikes have made to infrastructure, access to clean water, electricity, education and medical care are spotty at best. And, while children go hungry, Israel blocks humanitarian aid.

Of course, this in not the picture the slightly built, congenial, handsome and articulate soldiers presented to the congregation. They claimed checkpoints were no different than going through security at O Hare International Airport in Chicago. And, they rewrote recent history to portray a peace-seeking Israeli populace that is constantly under attack by rockets and suicide bombers.

“They work very hard to create an image that you can be killed at any minute by a suicide bomber or a stray missile, then when asked about visiting (Israel), they tell you it’s the safest place, no one’s ever had an issue ,” said Nidal Kanaan, a Palestinian American who attended the service. “There was a big difference between their rehearsed comments and their (responses during the ) Q and A, which was very interesting to see.  It was propaganda and lies and the church seemed to buy into it without reservation.
Historically, another group used propaganda and an ideology/military power to ethnically cleanse a people, very disturbing. Not once did they (the soldiers) ever say ‘Palestine’ or ‘Palestinian people’ only “civilians.” They refused to acknowledge our presence.”

The first soldier, a former commander and decorated paratrooper, told how he was born on a kibbutz, grew up in small town near Haifa where Jews, Christians and Muslims “all live side by side in a good neighborly fashion.” He then shared how suicide bombers turned this idyllic life into a life of terror. “Suicide bombers are something ordinary, at shopping malls, on the buses, all the places where young people go to have fun,” he claimed. However, during the question and answer portion of the evening, as Kanaan pointed out, both soldiers assured the audience that tourists were safer in Israel than on the streets of Chicago or Philadelphia.

The soldiers went on to “debunk” Israel’s murder of nine people aboard one of the Humanitarian Aid Flotilla boats, Mavi Marmara. They claimed the murdered peace activists aboard the flotilla were all members of a terrorist group who were killed in self-defense. The soldiers lied that humanitarian aid flows freely into Gaza and the West Bank. And they dishonestly asserted that Israel seeks a peaceful two-state solution when in fact their actions prove their intention is to have free reign and total control of the region.

In retelling his experience during Operation Cast Lead, one soldier said, “Israel said enough is enough. Hamas is a worldwide terrorist organization with headquarters in hospitals. They use ambulances as a getaway car. IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) never fires at medical aid and never prevents medical aid. Guys when you’re out there its a whole different world. It’s horrible. I gotta be honest, it’s scary.”

According to the Goldstone report, a report commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council,  Operation Cast Lead deliberately targeted schools, mosques and civilians. Israeli military blocked rescue parties from reaching the wounded, used human shields and killed fleeing civilians waving white flags. Former president Jimmy Carter wrote, “The Goldstone committee examined closely the cause of deaths of the 1,387 Palestinians who perished, and the degree of damage to the various areas. The conclusion was that the civilian areas were targeted and the devastation was deliberate.”

The soldier’s song and dance worked its charm, well, miraculously. Congregation members praised them, applauded them and hotly defended them against concerns brought up during the question and answer portion. And, at the close of the service, they passed the plate. Seems having air power second only to the US and $3 billion in US Aid (annually) isn’t enough to silence a broken, poverty-stricken, hungry and homeless Palestinian people.

The same soldiers from the Stand With Us tour made a subsequent stop at the University of Michigan on October 20^th. Here’s how students there upstaged the deceitful presentation.