Nov 29, 2017

Young Christians – don't give up on the ChurchBy: C4i

The story is depressingly familiar. "Millennials walk away from the Church,” "Church attendance drops to record lows,” "poll shows majority of adults under 35 don't believe in a spiritual afterlife.” Same topic, different headlines. The church has a problem, and it knows it.

When Christian blogs talk about this issue, it's often from the perspective of the church. What can the church do to appeal to the modern generation? Where are we letting our young people down? What problems do we need to address to win back this lost generation? These are important questions and ones that should be asked. But today, I want to write about something different. I want to speak directly to young Christians and give them some reasons to stick with the church.

You can be part of the solution

The church isn't perfect. In fact, it's a far cry from perfect. There is judgment, gossip, hypocrisy, and that's just for starters. The alienation so many young Christians feel from the church isn't something that just happened. It's not the fault of reality TV or wi-fi signals or any other boogeyman that apologists will sometimes blame for the lack of young bodies in the pews. Young people are leaving the church because they are disappointed. Because they see the same problems in the church they've seen since they were children, the same problems their parents put up with, and it's not getting any better.

It's an understandable reaction. But, it's not a productive one. The church needs your disappointment. It needs your dissatisfaction with the way things are. Not from the perspective of an outside spectator looking in, but as someone on the inside. As a person who is willing to stand up and try to fix these issues, to take the church where it needs to go in the 21st century.

You can leave the church and wash your hands of it, or you can stick around and get to work. You can help build the church you want to see.

The church needs new, loud, voices

Change is never easy. Every push for progress, reform, or change in history has been met with resistance. People are reluctant to change what they're used to at the best of times, and can get downright hostile when push comes to shove. Jesus knew that. When he preached his radical Gospel of love he did it from within Judaism. He butted heads with the rabbis and pharisees of the day. He challenged longstanding traditions, spoke for the voiceless, and flipped over tables when He thought it was necessary. And he did it with love in his heart.

We need to follow in that courageous example. We need the conviction and resolve to speak truth to power and weather the occasional bit of awkwardness or tension in the interest of preserving the church as an institution. Could you imagine how bleak and terrible this world would be if Jesus never had the courage to stand his ground? If he looked around at the pharisees, political corruption, and sad state of the nation and thought "well, no point sticking around here?”

The church is worth saving

As a young Christian, you might not think you need the church. Why bother with a creaky old institution when you can pursue your walk with God all on your own? Or even better, why not get some of your friends together who feel the same way? A weekly spiritual group where you can sit down and discuss what's been bothering you and ideas about God and faith as you see fit?

There is nothing wrong with getting together with a group like that. If you feel like that is something that would bring you closer to God and help you in your daily struggles, then by all means go for it. But, it's not a substitute for church.

Church is important precisely because it isn't a hand-picked group of fellow travelers who all share the same values, beliefs (and as is so often the case in close knit groups, backgrounds). Church is one of the few places left where you have to meet and interact people of different age groups, ethnicities, backgrounds, and opinions. It's essential to recognize that all of these people are your spiritual brothers and sisters, not just the ones that happen to align closest to your personal values.

God loves all of us, and we need to learn the same. That something we can't do if we all pray on our own.

The church still has much to give. It can be a truly impactful instrument of Godliness, social change, and grace in our society. But only if the young Christians of today do their part to make it that way. This isn't the time to give up on the church – it's time to give it a new life.

[Comment]

Nov 22, 2017

USA THREATENS TO CLOSE PALESTINIAN OFFICE IN WASHINGTON:By: Colin Wingfield

The Trump administration put the Palestine Liberation Organization on notice over the weekend that it will close the group's office in Washington if the Palestinians don't get serious about peace talks with Israel, State Department officials said. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has determined the Palestinians violated a USA law that calls for the closure of the PLO mission if they act against Israel in the International Criminal Court. In a speech to the UN General Assembly in Sept. 2017 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ran afoul of the law when he called on the ICC to investigate and prosecute Israel for war crimes against the Palestinians. The 2015 law requires shuttering the PLO mission if the Palestinians seek to "influence a determination by the ICC to initiate a judicially authorized investigation, or to actively support such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians." (CNN) [Comment]

Nov 22, 2017

IDF FIRES AT SYRIAN ARMY POSITION IN GOLAN: By: Colin Wingfield

Israeli tank units in the Golan Heights fired a warning shot at a Syrian army position inside a no-man’sland along the Israeli-Syrian frontier Sunday evening 19 Nov. 2017. The Syrian position was illegally occupied inside the slender buffer zone which separates the Israeli and Syrian-held portions of the Golan Heights. The buffer zone was created as part of the cease-fire agreement which ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In 1974, the two powers signed the Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria, creating a narrow slice of neutral territory where both sides were prohibited to station military forces. A United Nations force, the UN Disengagement Observer Force, was charged with monitoring the buffer zone. Following the illegal establishment of the Syrian foothold in the buffer zone, an IDF tank unit in the Golan fired at the Syrian position to deter further provocations by the Syrian government. It is unclear if any damage or casualties resulted from the IDF tank fire. "In the last few hours,” an IDF spokesperson said, "the Syrian Armed Forces violated the 1974 ceasefire by strengthening a military post in the demilitarized zone between Syria & Israel. In response, an IDF tank fired a warning shot towards the area.” (INN) Continue to intercede that the escalating gathering of hostile forces, including Iran and Hezbollah in Syria - endangering Israel – will be contained and controlled. "Scatter the nations who delight in war.” Ps.68:30 [Comment]

Nov 22, 2017

ISRAELI MINISTER REVEALS COVERT CONTACTS WITH SAUDI ARABIA:By: Colin Wingfield

An Israeli cabinet minister said on 19 Nov. 2017 that Israel has had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia amid common concerns over Iran, a first disclosure by a senior Israeli official of such contacts. In an interview on Army Radio, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz was asked why Israel was hiding its ties with Saudi Arabia. Steinitz replied: "We have ties that are indeed partly covert with many Muslim and Arab countries, and usually we are the party that is not ashamed. It's the other side that is interested in keeping the ties quiet. With us there is no problem, but we respect the other side's wish, when ties are developing, whether it's with Saudi Arabia or with other Arab countries or other Muslim countries, and there is much more ... but we keep it secret." (J.Post) [Comment]

Nov 22, 2017

ISRAEL TO SEE RAINFALL, POSSIBLE FLOODING, THROUGHOUT THE WEEK: By: Colin Wingfield

Providing hope for the Kinneret's (Sea of Galilee) seriously decreasing water level, Israel's weather forecast for this week includes both rainfall and possible flooding. Monday's 20 Nov. 2017, weather was cloudy, with a slight drop in temperatures. Local rains were expected along the coast and in Israel's north. On Monday evening heavier rains fell in Israel's north and center, accompanied by isolated thunderstorms. Tuesday was expected to see intermittent rainfall in Israel's north and center, as well as isolated thunderstorms with a chance of flooding along the coast, as well as in the Jordan Valley, the Judean Desert, and the Dead Sea. Temperatures will drop throughout the week and conditions will be cloudy, with a chance of light local rainfall from Israel's north to the northern Negev. Temperatures will remain lower than seasonal average. Thursday will be cloudy, with a chance of light local rains. (Arutz-7) Please intercede for a much needed abundant rainy season in Israel but with limited damage to homes, property and agriculture. [Comment]

Nov 22, 2017

Croatia's slow and steady whitewashing of their actions during the HolocaustBy: C4i

The Jewish community in Croatia boycotted the government-sponsored Holocaust commemoration in 2016. This year, they did it again.

Why would a Jewish community do such a thing? Because they can tell when somebody is speaking out of both sides of their mouth. Croatia's politicians have a Nazi problem, and it seems to be getting worse, not better.

Croatia is a country that is at war with it's past. As part of the former Yugoslavia, Croatia's Ustasha regime acted as the willing militant arm of Hitler's occupation force in the area. The far-right party which was active before the Nazi invasion and subsequent occupation came to friendly terms with the Nazis and were installed as the governing body for the Independent State of Croatia. With this power, the Ustasha carried out a systematic ethnic cleansing of Serbians, Jews, and Romani living in the area. These actions are well documented and collaborated by survivors held in Ustasha camps. It happened.

But, the current powers that be in Croatia would prefer to ignore that past. While other Axis nations have worked to come to grips with the sins of their fathers, Croatia is a state in deep denial about its past, and that denial extends straight to the top.

Take president Grabar-Kitarovic for example, a woman who seems to change her sentiment depending on which audience she's in front of. During a 2015 visit to Israel, she expressed contrition at Yad Vashem to the Jewish people, saying "I express my deepest regrets to all the victims of the Holocaust in Croatia, killed at the hands of the collaborationist Ustasha regime during World War II,”

But, this same woman also leads a party that makes its bread and butter by appealing to a far-right nationalism base that not only denies the criminal deeds of their ancestors, but lionizes them. For all of Mrs. Kitarovic's statements in front of the world's premier Holocaust museum, she has also been spotted proudly posing with the Ustasha flag, all smiles and grins, shoulder to shoulder with holocaust deniers. She has also repeatedly gone out of her way to express her fondness for a pro-Ustasha musician who goes by the stage-name Thompson. Thompson's music is the anthem of the nationalist movement and frequently invokes sentiment that glorifies the Ustasha's history.

We all know every politician flip flops a little, but this is more than just an awkward photo-op at a gala. This is an intentional playing to both audiences, an insidious kind of dog whistling that allows her to maintain a position as historically aware and condemning of the Ustasha, while also letting her far-right nationalist base know she is actually sympathetic to their views. Accuse her of antisemitism and her defenders will be quick shout about her empty Yad Vashem statements while lapping up the little nods that let them know what she really thinks. Publicly she's saying the right things, but winking at the camera the whole time.

In fact, let's look at that statement she made during the 2015 visit, because even that is a bit of a verbal card shuffle. She expresses regrets to victims killed by the "collaborationist Ustasha regime.” It might seem like a normal statement, but note the use of "collaborationist.” By positioning the Ustasha as "collaborators” it makes them seem like just another cats-paw of the Nazis. Another regime forced by circumstance and fear into doing the Nazis dirty work. That they enforced the Nazis views of racial purity and superiority to save their own skins. This lets them be seen by history as perhaps cowardly, but not evil.

But this is of course a dodge. The Ustasha regime was a brutally racist and violent organization well before the Nazis began exerting any kind of force on Yugoslavia. They organized in 1929 as a populist movement with a large base of support. They carried out violent demonstrations, beatings, acts of vandalism and intimidation, and even assassinations all on their own for years before the start of WWII. The movement was founded on and energized by a vision for a racially "pure" Croatia, its leaders held speeches openly promoting genocide against Serbs, Romani, and of course, the Jews. The Independent State of Croatia might have been a fascist puppet state of the Axis powers, but the Ustasha were right on board with Hitler's ideology and practices. They were enthusiastic partners to the Nazis final solution, not a bunch of coerced and cowed victims.

Sadly, Grabar-Kitarovic is far from the only one in the Croatian government playing to the nationalist crowd, and others are far less subtle about it. Cultural Minister Zlatko Hasanbegović openly flirts with nationalist sentiment so often that it would be a stretch to consider him a closet fascist – more like a coy one.

Hasanbegović made waves recently after he attended the Croatian premiere of a documentary film titled Jasenovac—The Truth. The film alleges the infamous Jasenovac concentration camp (the execution site of over 100,000 innocent Serbs and other "undesirables” including 12,000-20,000 Jews) was not in fact a death camp (despite overwhelming evidence of the horrors committed there), but a "labor camp” with far more luxurious living conditions than the camps historically documented squalor.

The film further alleges that the death toll of the camp was a post-war fabrication and that the harshness of the camp's conditions were purposefully exaggerated to illicit pity for the Serbs and Jews held there and as an excuse to excise certain political organizations from public consideration.

This is all text-book holocaust denial, the same tricks trotted out by Nazis sympathizers again and again since the war. Yet, despite its transparent false narrative, Hasanbegović had high praise for the film, saying "Such films are useful because they speak about a number of taboo topics. This is the best way to finally shed light on a number of controversial places in Croatian history.”

Of course, this is par for the course for Hasanbegović, he has a storied history of blatant Ustasha revisionism and sympathy. Hasanbegović has been criticized in the past due to pro-Ustasha articles he wrote as a college student for nationalist publications in which he lauded Ustasha hatchet-men as heroes. There are also photos of him as a teenager dressed in Ustasha badges and markings, seeming to be a member of a nationalist youth group.

Yet, despite these obvious sympathies and a massive outcry from the Croatian Jewish community to remove him, he remains in his position. His fellow cabinet-mates offering only deflections and apologies on his behalf, no action or real condemnation. Make no mistake, his soft stance on Coratia's antisemitic history is not a bug, but a feature to his party. It was not a mistake that he was given the post of Cultural Minister.

All the while, public institutions continue to downplay and distance themselves form their historical actions. The public Jasenovac exhibit, for example, the memorial built on the site of mass executions, shows the facility as more of work camp than anything else. The mass executions are downplayed and talked around. It's acknowledge that people suffered in the camp, but in the way anyone would suffer in a prison. No photos of bodies or executions are displayed anywhere despite the vast amount of photographic evidence of those crimes readily available. If one was to tour the Jasenovac site today without any external knowledge, they'd leave thinking it was more akin to an internment camp or corrections facility than the brutal "Auschwitz of the Balkans” that it was. Again, that is not a mistake or an oversight, but a subtle and deliberate distortion of history.

What is happening in Croatia is just one example of the historical revisionism going on in Eastern Europe. As more politicians blow louder dog whistles to their antisemitic base, pundits become more blatant with their rhetoric, and public displays of outrageous behaviour become more common, we all need to take guard, even in North America.

It is to the Jewish community in Croatia's credit that they have taken such a stand against the growing radicalization they see around them, but they cannot be expected to fight alone. It is up to all citizens of good conscience and moral clarity to recognize the resurgent groundswell of Nazism that is taking hold around the globe and set themselves against it.

[Comment]

Nov 15, 2017

ISRAELIS LIVE 10 YEARS LONGER THAN IN 1970:By: Colin Wingfield

Thanks to a more healthful lifestyle, better economic situation, improved education and a more advanced medical system, the Israeli life expectancy has increased by 10.3 years since 1970 – from 71.8 years to 82.1 years in 2015. This has just been made public in "Health at a Glance 2017,” a comparative report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which Israel joined in 2010. It also pays to get a higher education in Israel: Men with bachelor’s degrees lived an average of 7.5 years longer than men with much less formal education, while the gap between better-educated and less-educated women was five years. According to the report, if the rates of smoking and drinking alcohol were 50% lower, life expectancy would have increased by 13 more months. (J.Post) [Comment]

Nov 15, 2017

WOMAN INJURED IN STONE-THROWING ATTACK NEAR BEITAR ILLIT:By: Colin Wingfield

At least one person was injured and multiple cars damaged Sunday night 12 Nov. 2017, in a series of stone-throwing attacks by Palestinian Authority residents on Israeli vehicles outside Beitar Illit south of Jerusalem. A general increase in the number of rock attacks in Israel has been reported with the number reaching at least 25 such murder attempts per day. Rocks hurled at a moving vehicles are murderous weapons, especially on highways, as the deaths of little Adele Bitton, teenager Amitai Kapach and Asher Palmer and his one-year-old son Yonatan prove. All these, and others, were killed because their vehicles went out of control due to a murderous barrage of rocks or a large rock hurled at them while driving. In an attack reported last week, Arabs threw stones at a bus near the town of Tekoa. There were no casualties but the vehicle was damaged. Besides this, three other attempted murders took place within the space of an hour in Judea and Samaria, including two stone-throwing attacks near the Tapuach junction and another stone-throwing attack in Gush Etzion, near Al Aruv. All attempts miraculously left no Jewish casualties, but damage was caused to a number of vehicles. (Arutz-7) Please intercede against terrorist rock throwing attacks which are potentially fatal to Israeli drivers and their passengers. Pray that those who are involved in such assaults will be identified and brought to justice. [Comment]

Nov 15, 2017

IRAN-IRAQ EARTHQUAKE: DEATH TOLL RISES TO 405: By: Colin Wingfield

Hundreds of people have been killed and over 7000 injured in Iran and Iraq after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit the border region between the two countries, sending tremors that were felt hundreds of miles away in both capitals, Tehran and Baghdad. At least 405 people have died - mainly in Iran - according to a toll published on Tues morning 14 Nov. 2017, by the semi-official Isna news agency. The powerful quake struck the country’s western provinces at 9.20pm local time on Sunday. Rescuers worked through the night to find people trapped in collapsed buildings in towns affected by the quake, which was felt as far west as Israel and south to Baghdad. The deputy governor of the Iranian border province of Kermanshah told state television that the death toll would rise. Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz offered his sympathy to the countries. "My condolences to the people of Iran and Iraq over the loss of human life caused by the earthquake,” said Katz. (UK Guardian/Times of Israel) [Comment]

Nov 15, 2017

Sea of Galilee sinks to record low as drought dries up Israel’s natural water sourcesBy: Colin Wingfield

- Photo by Itamar Grinberg courtesy of israeltourism

Israel's water production is nothing short of miraculous. As a desert nation with an arid climate, there are parts of Israel (particularly in the South) that see less than 100mm of rain annually. Yet despite this, the people of Israel thrive.

For many years, this was due to careful conservation and water management. Large public efforts to reduce water waste and raise awareness about the value of the precious resource and the collective responsibility to safeguard it. There was a time when practically every TV news broadcast ended with an update on the water level in the Sea of Galilee.

However, those days are gone. Over the the past decade, technology has replaced conservation as the driving force behind Israel's aquatic abundance.

Israel leads the world in water purification technology. Several of the most important water-related innovations over the past 60 years have originated either in Israel, or from Israeli minds. Perhaps the greatest triumph of these efforts are the massive water desalination plants that now provide around 70% of the nation's potable water.

These five facilities located throughout the country are capable of taking millions upon millions of gallons of salt water per day and converting it into potable drinking water. The plants have become so effective and efficient, they've put an end to the entire idea of scarcity of drinking and agricultural water in the nation. Israel no longer suffers from a the near calamitously low levels of drinking water the old PSAs warned about, but in fact enjoys a surplus, the evidence of which you can see in the land itself. Israel is the only desert nation in the world where the desert is actually receding in the face of expanding agriculture.

This is fantastic news for the people living and working in Israel, but it comes with one major caveat – the desalination plants only provide water for the people. The natural resources of Israel are at as much risk due to drought then ever before. Only now, the people are not aware of the issue.

This is the concern being voiced by Israel's Water Authority who are now planning a 2018 revival of those old public knowledge campaigns. To make people aware of the growing natural crisis that threatens to dry up Israel's natural sources of water. As the Sea of Galilee recedes to record lows, there is a desperate sense of urgency to return to the cautious conservation of yesteryear.

The drought of the past year has not been kind to Israel’s natural water sources. Northern Israel, usually the part of the country that can depend on regular rainfall, has a deficit of 2.5 billion cubic liters of water when compared to average years. This water is what normally supplies the streams and underground aquifers that supply the Sea of Galilee. If the winter season is similarly unkind, there is a high risk that these sources will dry up completely, depriving the Sea and leading to irreparable harm.

The Sea of Galilee is of course a resource of tremendous environmental and cultural significance, which by itself should be enough to justify widespread attempts to save it. However, the Sea also poses an important security issue for Israel as well. While the desalination plants provide the vast majority of the water to the nation, any disruptions in their production (such as a natural disaster, malfunction, or attack), and the country is left literally high and dry. The Sea of Galilee is the only freshwater source that exists in the nation without the need for outside resources or heavy processing.

The challenge now facing the Water Authority is re-energizing the public on the value of conservation in a world where scarcity no longer immediately effects them. There needs to be a widespread recognition that no country, no matter how water-rich, can afford to take it for granted.

It's a lesson those of us in the West should also take to heart. There is no guarantee that the abundance we enjoy today will be there tomorrow, and it is up to all of us to do what we can to act as good stewards of the gifts God has given us.

[Comment]

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