December 14, 2023

Articles for This Issue:

DWF NEWS

December 14, 2023

Does the Bible Tell Netanyahu to "Utterly Destroy" All Gazans?

NYT Amplifies Outrage Over Imaginary Calls for Genocide

Ari Paul

Will "Christian" Zionism suffer a loss of following after genocide news spreads around the world?

Don Hank

UN Honor, US Shame in Gaza

Jeffrey Sachs

Scientists Against Israeli Apartheid, Occupation & Genocide in Gaza

International Convention Against War and Destructive Use of Science

Assaf Kfoury

Craig Murray: Stopping Genocide

Craig Murray

Gazan Catastrophe Shows Why the UN Needs the Earth Constitution

Roger Kotila

Does the Bible Tell Netanyahu to "Utterly Destroy" All Gazans?

NYT Amplifies Outrage Over Imaginary Calls for Genocide

Ari Paul

EXCERPTS

Announcing the "second stage" of the war against Gaza (Common Dreams, 10/30/23), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, "You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible"—a reference to 1 Samuel 15:3: "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling."

In yet another follow-up piece, the Times (12/10/23) accepted Republican concern about campus antisemitism as fact, without questioning whether mere criticism of Israel was being wrongly branded as antisemitic, or acknowledging that it has actually been the left that has blown the whistle on the rise of white nationalism, antisemitism and xenophobia in conjunction with the political rise of Donald Trump (Washington Post, 10/17/22; Haaretz, 11/8/22).

The “potency” of the recent Republican inquisition into free speech on campuses, the Times‘ Nicholas Confessore said, “was underscored by how many Democrats joined the attack.” It was lost on the Times that it was its own misframing of the exchange that lent liberal validation to a far-right GOP leader like Stefanik.

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Will "Christian" Zionism suffer a loss of following after genocide news spreads around the world?

Don Hank

EXCERPTS

News of the Israeli genocide has impacted world opinion regarding Israel, but I am not optimistic that "Christian" Zionism will be equally influenced. Religious fanatics tend to ignore facts.

The news of the Israeli genocide has had a palpable impact on world opinion regarding Israel. The grim photos and videos and the news stories of tens of thousands of deaths and injuries of innocents, including at least 8000 children, have taken their toll on Israeli prestige and global goodwill toward this criminal state.

... I was brought up in a “Christian” Zionist home in the Bible belt and am still in touch with some of the religious leaders indoctrinated in this cult. “Christian” Zionists, while rarely referring to themselves by this name, absolutely dominate the Evangelical landscape ...

The Evangelical excuse-making for Jews and Israel is also expressed in more subtle ways. For example, I noticed at one point years ago that no one was stating outright that the Jews had a key role in the brutal murder of Jesus. In tandem with this gingerly approach to the actual history of the murder and the circumstances leading up to it, came a brand new theological credo. Pastors started stating that the real cause of Jesus’ death was none other than every human being, because we are all sinners and the reason God sent His Son to die on the cross was us. Our sins cause His death. Nothing else. ... 

After all, while “Christian” Zionists seem to believe that any criticism of the Jews will be equated by the Lord Almighty to “cursing Israel,” not only is there no biblical mandate for non-Jews and Christians to refrain from any and all criticism of Jews, but a close reading of Ezekiel 37, on which “Christian” Zionists base much of their beliefs about modern Israel, and DNA testing showing that today’s Jewry is not uniform enough to constitute a distinct ethnicity negate the “theology” of “Christian” Zionism. 

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UN Honor, US Shame in Gaza

Jeffrey Sachs

EXCERPTS

By voting to stop Israel’s war on Gaza by a vote of 13 yes, one no (U.S.), and one abstention (U.K.), the vast majority put itself on the side of international law. The U.S. stood alone against international law, with its sidekick and tutor in imperial brutality, the United Kingdom, dutifully abstaining.

To date, more than 17,400 Gazans have been killed, and an unfathomable 1.8 million Gazans have been displaced. Tens of thousands are at risk of imminent death. Last month, Guterres warned that “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children.” Israel pushed the population from northern Gaza to the south, and then invaded the south. Israeli authorities told Gazans to flee for their life to zones within the south, and then bombed the places to which the Gazans had been directed.

The U.S. is more than a protector of Israel. It is an accomplice. The U.S. supplies, in real-time, the munitions Israel uses for mass murder, even as U.S. authorities pay lip-service to Gazan civilian lives.

Israeli zealots, including several in the cabinet, believe that God promised them all of the lands from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. This belief is fatuous. As Jewish history should make clear to religious Jews, and as all human history should make clear generally, no group, whether Jewish or otherwise, has an unconditional “right” to any land.

We must not become cynical about the U.N. It is currently blocked by the U.S., the country that led its creation under America’s greatest president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.



The U.N. is doing its job, building international law, sustainable development and universal human rights, step-by-step, with advances and reverses, over the opposition of powerful forces, but with the arc of history on its side. International law is a relatively new human creation, still in the works. It is difficult to achieve in the face of obstreperous imperial power, but we must pursue it.

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Scientists Against Israeli Apartheid, Occupation & Genocide in Gaza

International Convention Against War and Destructive Use of Science

Assaf Kfoury

Nearly 500 scientists from 40 countries, including physicists, mathematicians, biologists, chemists, medical doctors, and engineers, working in academia and in industry, attended the convention.

Here is the recording!

A “Scientists’ Declaration Against Genocide and in Support of Palestine” has been adopted by the convention after voting, with an absolute majority (97%):

9 Dec 2023 – We, the undersigned members of the international scientific community, strongly condemn the Israeli state’s continuing genocidal attacks on Palestinians, who are indigenous to Palestine. For generations, the Palestinians have been forced to live in subjugation and unequal treatment in an apartheid regime [1,2,3]. We recognize this gross human-rights violation as the root cause of the ongoing war on Gaza, which has already resulted in a horrendous number of casualties, among whom nearly half are children [4]. We mourn all violent deaths, and deplore atrocities against all non-combatants of any ethnicity and nationality, including the attacks on October 7 against Israeli non-combatants and foreign nationals. However, this violence occurred in the context of decades of Israel’s apartheid policies and its inhumane siege of Gaza. We condemn Israel’s actions that include the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas of Gaza, the cutting off of electricity, fuel, water, and medical supplies, the destruction of hospitals, schools, universities and refugee camps in Gaza, and both Israeli state and settler violence against Palestinians. These acts are war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention and the International Criminal Court [5,6,7].

As scientists, we are deeply concerned about the increasing weaponization of science and technology, with a devastating effect on humanity. There is a relentless rise in the funding of scientific and technological research for militaristic ends. The military-industrial complex underpins the economies of many nations [8], driving a vicious cycle of increasing military budgets, profits of arms manufacturers, and arms trade, with little accountability or benefit to public society [9,10]. Global arms sales have driven the militarization of societies, the normalization of war, and the expansion of armed conflicts. Constant warfare is being waged in different parts of the globe, with the instigation of nations that enable these crimes against humanity, either due to their direct or indirect involvement, or from their marketing of sophisticated arms, ammunition, and other weapons of destruction. The genocide in Gaza risks an expansion of hostilities—between heavily armed actors—into a regional or world war. In this context of escalation of global warfare and increasingly brazen massacres, we strongly oppose the weaponization of scientific and technological research. We appeal to scientists of all countries to raise their voices against wars and the destruction of humanity.

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Craig Murray: Stopping Genocide

Craig Murray

Almost the entire political Establishment of the West have outed themselves as enthusiastic proponents of a racial supremacism, prepared to give active assistance to a genocide of indigenous people.

EXCERPTS

The Masks Are Off

The world has been jolted, suddenly. Masks have been ripped off. Almost the entire political Establishment of the West have outed themselves as enthusiastic proponents of a racial supremacism, prepared to give active assistance to a genocide of indigenous people.



There really is no way to face up to the Genocide in Gaza without facing up to the active support of Joe Biden, Ursula von der Leyen, Rishi Sunak and most western political leaderships – including both Labour and Conservatives in the U.K.

We also have to face the complicity of ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan and a number of other Western stooges operating at senior levels within international institutions. Where the World goes from here, in the face of the raw racial hatred and enthusiasm for the killing of babies that has been revealed by those in power, is very difficult for people to come to reckon.

I know we have been here before, with the invasion of Iraq and numerous other instances of brutal abuse of power on the world stage.

But this has a different feel. I am trying to understand why.

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Gazan Catastrophe Shows Why the UN Needs the Earth Constitution

Roger Kotila

The United Nations has been unable to free the Palestinians from Israeli occupation, and it has been unable to stop the mass murder and destruction underway in Gaza. Israel, with weapons and money supplied by the U.S., states its goal is to eliminate Hamas but in practice is eliminating all that is Gazan.  

Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) votes by a wide margin for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. But Israel ignores the UNGA resolution. Because the UN is undemocratic, Israel has the "protection" of the U.S. which uses its permanent UN Security Council veto power to prevent UN intervention.  

What must be done? We need a "new UN" designed for democratic rule. This is possible by the UNGA using Article 109-3 to launch a review of the obsolete UN Charter. The UNGA could utilize the Earth Constitution (EC) as a guide, model and authority to create a "new UN." The EC, drafted by the World Constitution & Parliament Association, would establish a World Parliament with a House of Peoples, House of Nations, and House of Counselors.

Unlike the current UN, a "new UN" established under the Earth Constitution would have a well-designed World Judicial System with real authority. The EC contains enforceable law and order which is absent in the present UN. No longer could the leaders of Bully nations ignore world law and commit world crimes with impunity. If Israeli leaders (with the help of the U.S.) are committing genocide against the Palestinians, then they could be held accountable under the Law.   

[The Earth Constitution Solution, Design for a Living Planet by Dr. Glen T. Martin is an excellent resource. For information on the Earth Constitution/Earth Federation Movement contact Dr. Roger Kotila at [email protected]]