Quote of the Day

"'The times are bad! The times are troublesome!' This is what humans say. But we are our times. Let us live well and our times will be good. Such as we are, such are our times."

--Saint Augustine of Hippo

Radical Zionism Is the Greatest Threat to Peace in the Holy Land

by Justin Soutar

It's hard to believe that I've been writing about this topic for almost twenty years now. As a young and idealistic new freelance writer way back in 2005, I undertook a broad and intense study of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and related Middle Eastern history and culture in order to arrive at the objective truth of the situation. Two years prior, in 2003, Pope John Paul II's strong opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had cracked and broken the glass dome of my neat and tidy view of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that had been shaped by President Bush, Republican politicians, and conservative political commentators, alerting me that something was drastically wrong with that view. So I decided to re-examine the subject with an open mind to determine the root causes of this historic conflict and how it could be resolved. I read almost everything I could get my hands on by a wide variety of authors on all sides of the issue, including historians, journalists, diplomats, and conservative and liberal political commentators, interpreting it all from the perspective of Catholic doctrine and the stated positions of recent popes, especially John Paul II and Benedict XVI. As a result, the realities of the conflict and the necessary steps to a peaceful resolution emerged with crystal clarity. It did not matter one bit that my resulting position on the issue was nearly identical with that of liberal Democratic commentators. What mattered was that I had discovered vital truths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that few people in the U.S. seemed to be aware of, as they were getting lost in partisan political squabbles, and that the dominant conservative Republican view of the conflict was so ideologically biased and riddled with factual errors that it was an obstacle to peace in and of itself. So, in an attempt to remedy this situation, I wrote and published the book America's Back-Door Enemy: Unmasking the Unknown Terrorists (Tate Publishing, 2009), which is now out of print. (If you would like a used copy, please contact me.)

One of the most important things I learned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has long been and continues to be ignored and dismissed by ideologically blind conservative commentators in the U.S., was the existence and activity of the radical Zionist movement. This small but vicious group of pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian, European Jewish terrorists and settlers has been around since well before the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, and has grown larger, bolder, more powerful, more cunning, more sophisticated, and more violent in recent years. It has infiltrated and influenced the Israeli military, government, courts, economy, and society through the decades and is currently in control of the Israeli government. It has committed murderous terrorist attacks against tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians and has unjustly evicted tens of thousands more, including many Christians, from their ancestral homes in the Holy Land and surrounding Palestinian territories. Radical Zionist operatives from Israel's intelligence agency Mossad orchestrated the dramatic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, which was a "false flag" operation carefully designed to appear carried out by Arab "Islamic" terrorists. The aim of these attacks was to get American policy, and specifically American military involvement, in the Middle East unequivocally on Israel's side. The radical Zionists were successful in getting the U.S. to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power, although there was insufficient moral justification for doing so. Pope John Paul's prediction that the resulting power vacuum would be filled by Islamic fundamentalists came true as ISIS unleashed a devastating reign of terror across Iraq from 2014 until 2021.

The goal of the radical Zionist movement, which is one of the most dangerous international terrorist organizations on the planet, is to restore the biblical Greater Israel (Eretz Yisrael) that will stretch eastward to the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq and include Jordan and part of Syria as well. This demonic movement will not hesitate to use any and all means necessary, up to and including the forced displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people, in order to achieve its utopian dream. 

There is extensive media coverage and conservative commentary in the U.S. of terrorist attacks by the radical fringe of Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians and allegedly justified Israeli military responses to these crimes, but we hear precious little about the radical Zionist terrorism and land theft being committed against innocent Palestinian Jewish, Christian, and Muslim civilians with impunity, and when we do, it is not identified as radical Zionist. While the latter crimes provoke the former and the former crimes are used to justify the latter in a perpetual vicious cycle of violence, the radical Zionist movement is the fundamental root cause of the entire conflict. Its utterly godless members refuse to recognize that the Palestinian people have any rights whatsoever, seeing them merely as an obstacle to be eliminated in order to create their own paradise on earth. And they view the surrounding Arab countries as evil enemies of Israel because they acknowledge and uphold the basic human rights of the Palestinian people, their fellow Arabs.

As all recent popes have stated, there can be no peace without justice. Radical Zionism is the greatest threat to justice and peace in the Holy Land and surrounding Israel and Palestine. Therefore, this evil movement must be defeated by prayer, fasting, and the arrest and prosecution of its members. Both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples have the right to a state within clearly defined borders established by international law. The Israelis have had one for 76 years, but despite their relatively low population, at the urging of radical Zionists, they have been illegally and unjustly attempting to expand their state's territory at the expense of the Palestinians. The Palestinians, despite their much higher population, still don't have a state. The following steps are absolutely necessary for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: 

1. Both sides must renounce the use of violence in any form as a means to achieve their goals. 

2. Israel must withdraw within and officially accept its borders established by the U.N. in 1948. 

3. The long overdue state of Palestine must be established and officially recognized by Israel.

4. The Old City of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount which is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, must be placed in the international zone established by the U.N. in 1948. 

 

Copyright © 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"As Christ, the new Adam, must be called a King not merely because He is Son of God, but also because He is our Redeemer, so, analogously, the Most Blessed Virgin is queen not only because she is Mother of God, but also because, as the new Eve, she was associated with the new Adam....For from her union with Christ she attains a radiant eminence transcending that of any other creature; from her union with Christ she receives the royal right to dispose of the treasures of the Divine Redeemer's Kingdom; from her union with Christ finally is derived the inexhaustible efficacy of her maternal intercession before the Son and His Father."

--Venerable Pope Pius XII, Ad Caeli Reginam, #38--39

Quote of the Day

"Grace cannot be deserved, let alone bought, it can only be received as a gift. As such, it is also totally unpredictable, just like a midsummer snowfall in Rome. Indeed, grace arouses marvel and amazement. Let us not forget these two words. We cannot lose the ability to marvel and the ability to be amazed, as they are part of our experience of faith."

--Pope Francis, Homily, August 5, 2024