Living Armstrongism: The Plight of Israeli Peace Groups

Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Plight of Israeli Peace Groups

Recently I read Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance, a book discussing protest rallies by Palestinians in the West Bank against Israeli occupation. The authors went to the Holy Land in 2011-3 to discuss and research the state of the situation there.

One disappointing thing I read in this book is that apparently there is widespread ignorance and apathy within Israeli society about what happens in the West Bank and Gaza and about what the Palestinians demand from the Israeli authorities. Chapter 7 discusses Israeli peace groups and how difficult it is for them to reach out to the Israeli public.

Here is what one Israeli activist said to the authors of this book stating that many Israelis are not aware that the West Bank is not legally regarded as a part of the State of Israel.

He prefaced his remarks by observing that Israeli society had no idea about the OPT [occupied Palestinian territories]. Sometime prior to our interview he had made a presentation to a class of former soldiers, he had been shocked that half of them thought the OPT was part of Israel. (Marwan Darweish and Andrew Rigby, Popular Protest in Palestine, 2015, Chapter 7.)

In several Palestinian villages in the West Bank the Palestinians there have held weekly protests on Friday against the Israeli occupation and opposing the construction of the Wall. But they are little discussed in Israeli society. Here is what one Israeli Jew who participates in these protests said about how Israeli media covered those protests.

It is not so much that the protest actions are delegitimised, it is that they are virtually non-existant for the Israeli public. There is no reporting of the Friday protests [by Israeli media.]

Here is what one woman associated with Machsom Watch had to say about apathy among the Israeli public.

There was the second intifada - nothing came out of that and the buses being blown up. Now the buses are not being blown up and still nothing comes out of it. Israelis are comfortable with the situation. ... People look the other way - it tears me to pieces seeing the conditions in the West Bank and then going into a shopping mall in Tel Aviv ... I can get so angry. I bug people ... people live with it.

Somehow I had never before imagined that Israeli Jews viewed the situation in this way.

Darweish and Rigby also mention that the Palestinians of the West Bank are quite fearful of the Israeli settlers. They quote one Palestinian activist mentioning that adults accompany Palestinian children to school when their path should happen to be near the settlements.

Our aim is to reopen roads, encourage work in agriculture, and accompany children to schools and shepherds to the fields. (Chapter 5.)

It was sad to see that the Palestinians are so fearful and afraid of the settlers. Accompanying children to school because of fear of settlers is not a sign of anti-Semitic hatred, but of genuine fear.

We must always that the current situation is not inevitable and it can be corrected. Today in fact. We cannot wait until Christ returns. Appropriate decisions to make peace need to be made now. We need peace now.

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Fall of Berlin Wall NOT Proof HWA was Right

It is often asserted that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 proved that HWA was right and he really did see the future.

This of course is nonsense. Herbert W. Armstrong said that Christ would return within twenty years in his book Mystery of the Ages. (PCG has since deleted those words so someone in there knows HWA spoke nonsense.) How convenient for them to forget this.

Also Herbert W. Armstrong never said the Soviet Union would collapse. He thought it would survive intact until a few years after Christ's return. It shows how biased some many in the COGs are that they never seem to notice this. This inconvenient truth is just tossed into the memory hole.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

What sort of man is he? A man who could say things like this.

"Mr. Armstrong has reminded us again that we are to disfellowship any members who attend GTA's [Garner Ted Armstrong's] campaigns, church services or other meetings. Some of our weaker members apparently do not realize that this man is in direct rebellion against God and His government! We must not allow them, or ourselves, to rationalize about this matter, to try to "help the underdog," or in any other way lend support to one whose gross immorality, whose long standing "play acting" and hypocrisy, and whose direct insubordination to the Government of God has long been and is now a source of confusion and DIVISION among God's people. So, as per Mr. Armstrong's instruction, I charge and exhort every one of you faithful ministers of the living Christ to explain this in no uncertain terms to your members, to warn them about this cause of division and then to disfellowship any who consort with GTA or any of his fellows." (Roderick C. Meredith, Pastor's Report, May 21, 1979, pp. 1-2.)

See here for this statement's context.

David Robinson on Roderick C. Meredith

WCG minister David Robinson had this to say about Roderick C. Meredith in a letter he wrote to him on September 19, 1979.

"During the ten years I have been an employee of the Worldwide Church, you have been poorly spoken of by most of the ministers and employees I have known. I vividly remember the absolute unbounded glee that was openly expressed by a good number of respected men in the church when you were first "shanghaied." [In 1972.] I could begin by naming names, which I am sure would shock you. I was one of the few who stood, where possible, for you. Your tenure as superintendent of ministers, as I believe the office was then called, was looked on as nightmarish. While you held office during the years of growth, most of those whom I know gave you very little credit for that growth. Almost everyone whom I know, whether they be former friends of yours, or continuing foes, recalls insensitive and terrible things you have done. Without exception, at least among my acquaintances, they all credit you with an unbridled lust for power and list you as one who is willing to pay the price of gaining that power, no matter what. I have, through many of the last few years, believed you had principles you would not violate. Many a man of experience in the church assured me of my error. Events have proven me wrong and them right. Mr. Armstrong has himself been widely quoted as saying of you that you were so righteous that you were so "righteous you were unrighteous." " (David Robinson, Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, Chapter 16, p. 207.)

Of course it is impossible for me to personally verify these assertions but people deserve to know what this knowledgeable man had to say about him.

Living Armstrongism

Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Plight of Israeli Peace Groups

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Fall of Berlin Wall NOT Proof HWA was Right

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

The Truth About Europe and Prophecy

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