COFFEE BREAK 82

+ updated 12:30pm EST

+ On Tuesday, the Naming His Grace blogger, Viola Larson, posted "The Israel/Palestine Mission Network posts a film put together by those espousing radical Islamic views of Israel. UP-date". I have been engaged in the debate ever since. Here are some of my comments:

It is not hard to read between the lines of those who support Israel unconditionally. You want the Palestinians out of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. You want a Greater Israel based on the biblical boundaries. You are willing to look the other way as Israel commits one violent act after another to achieve those illegal and immoral goals.

You believe the fantasy that the Camp David meeting of 2000 actually offered the Palestinians a viable state when all reasonable people on the planet could see that Israel was offering nothing but bandustans as South Africa once did.

You dismiss one eye witness report after another by simply crying "Anti-Semitic" or some other label which allows you to dismiss the truth.

You and others who support Israel unconditionally deal with a hundred other issues rather than the complete illegality and immorality of the colonies in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. You need to come out strongly in favor of the long standing policy of the US government which is to oppose those illegal and immoral colonies.

We need our government to adhere to this policy and we need to advocate for this with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind. People who support Israel can and should do this. All of the other issues pale in comparison to this one. Israel must leave its illegal colonies ASAP. I wait in hope for the announcement of the Israeli government that this will be done and the announcement of the US government that we insist on Israeli departure from its illegal and immoral colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That's THE issue, not Sabeel or who made the video or any other issues you bring up to sidetrack the debate.

+ Over 11 thousand have now affirmed the CHARTER FOR COMPASSION which was unveiled on November 12. It's a marvellous call to action to "bring the world together."

+ "Progress is not measured by how much we add to the abundance of those who already have a great deal, but rather by how much we do for those who have too little." -- Franklin D Roosevelt quoted by William Sloane Coffin in Credo

+ "We can have a democracy or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. We cannot have both." –- Justice Louis Brandeis quoted by William Sloane Coffin in Credo