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December 31, 2008 | 5:15 pm

Christian Broadcasting comes to Israel’s defense

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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I’ve mentioned before that if Jews control the media, they sure do a poor job utilizing it as a vehicle for world domination. Maybe the PR solution, then, would be to turn over media outlets to the folks at the Christian Broadcasting Network. They seem to treat Israel a lot more positively than, for instance, the Los Angeles Times.

Case in point: Watch this report from CBN NewsWatch, which can be viewed here, and references a video from Palestinian Media Watch, which is after the jump and shows a Hamas official saying they will use human shields against the Zionist enemy.

I’ve never watched CBN, though they do have a notably well-respected senior reporter in David Brody—born Jewish and now born-again. JT just called to tell me he had seen Dore Gold, the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, speaking on the “700 Club” (cringe) about why Israel was bombing Gaza.

I can’t find the interview, but Gold, now president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has been making the rounds since Israel’s airstrikes began Saturday. Here he is writing in the Jerusalem Post:

The charge that Israel uses disproportionate force keeps resurfacing whenever it has to defend its citizens from non-state terrorist organizations and the rocket attacks they perpetuate. From a purely legal perspective, Israel’s current military actions in Gaza are on solid ground.

Under international law, Israel is not required to calibrate its use of force precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it. Israel is not expected to make Kassam rockets and lob them back into Gaza.

When international legal experts use the term “disproportionate use of force,” they have a very precise meaning in mind. As the president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Rosalyn Higgins, has noted, proportionality “cannot be in relation to any specific prior injury - it has to be in relation to the overall legitimate objective of ending the aggression.”

In other words, if a state, like Israel, is facing aggression, then proportionality addresses whether force was specifically used by Israel to bring an end to the armed attack against it. By implication, force becomes excessive if it is employed for another purpose, like causing unnecessary harm to civilians.

The pivotal factor determining whether force is excessive is the intent of the military commander. In particular, one has to assess what was the commander’s intent regarding collateral civilian damage.

Gold goes on to discuss civilian casualties; JT told me that on the “700 Club” Gold talked about Hamas’ use of human shields. We all know this to be the case. As the above video shows, Hamas admits this to being the case. Even mosques are being used as staging grounds for Kassam rocket strikes.

I just wish it made the tragedies any less traumatic. Haaretz, the liberal Israeli daily, has had a particularly visceral and emotional reaction to the Gaza assault.

2 Comments — Leave your comment

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I see from your ‘(cringe)’ that you consider it icky for a faith-based entity to have a say in political matters. On the other hand the case can be made that the politics/religion divide is an artificial one that is rendered even more artificial by political evil.

In those terms, the Christian Broadcasting Network is more centrist and objective and fearless than religious broadcasting that ignores or flees from the very real, at times life-and-death engagement of politics in people’s lives.

Of course you will say that Al-Jazeera and Hezbollah television do the same thing, but all that means is that the viewer has to take some personality responsibility to discern good and evil, which starts by admitting that these are real qualities.

The larger case of that is to understand that non-faith-based entities (CNN etc,) are doing the same thing in reverse, by reporting politics in absence of the context of the very real, at times life-and-death engagement of morality in people’s lives.

I would just point our regarding the traumatic tragedies that we fanatical right wingers have been all alone with our traumatic tragedies for many years and most specifically since the the Gaza rocket attacks. Most Israeli losses have been ignored and underreported, starting with the relentless description of Hamas rockets as crude, homemade, useless, ineffective big firecrackers against looming Israeli armaments, an extension of the ‘children throwing pebbles at soldiers’ technique.

* * * * *

Nobody who does not have a solution to the problem should be put in a position to judge. Let’s put the human shield argument in context. Solve the following dimlemma:

You are at the mall with your wife. A man near you grabs his wife and using her as a shield, starts shooting at your wife. (Assuming you have a gun) All the advice-givers around you start shouting at you not to use disproportionate force (as your wife is not dead yet), to restrain yourself, to lessen the violence, to try to talk to the man and see his viewpoint, to compromise about the situation etc.

Choose 1:
A)wait a few years and try everything
B)shoot the man and be as careful as possible not to hit his wife.

Time limit: Sixty years and counting.

I get email updates from http://www.israelunitycoalition.org which operates a media outlet with a lighter touch on the faith than CBN

Comment by Ben Plonie on 1/01/09 at 9:40 am

Dear Brother\Sister,

Greetings in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As you are aware   INDIA has a population of over 1.04 billion people and out of which nearly 80% are TV viewers.

I have seen your programmes and had been blessed. I humbly suggest that you also make your Programmes broadcasted for the people of Asia/India, reaching out to 100 millions of people. I am willing to help you in this direction. At present I have a Ministry where we have 14 churches in rural places of   Andhra Pradesh ,  India. which is a registered by the Government of India. I have fairly good contacts with all the Cable Operators. Earlier I looked after   Andhra Pradesh , INDIA for 24 hour Christian Channels GOD TV. I even had a tie up with Gods Learning Channel (GLC) for India.
In case you want you can broadcast your programs in some of the commercial channels and Radio programs for some meager amount. I assure you, you will be thrilled to see the response of the people.
I am willing to help you in all matters in this direction. I am anxious in partnering with you in reaching out to India/Asia.

Awaiting your prayerful and fruitful reply.

Yours truly,
  David

Comment by David on 2/16/10 at 11:10 pm

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