Netanyahu's Disturbing Chabad Connections (Part 2)

Netanyahu's Disturbing Chabad Connections (Part 2)

by Sean Jobst

April 16, 2015

Schneerson was seventh in a line of Chabad leaders called Rebbe. The first Rebbe was Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), one of the foremost Hashidic authorities, who authored commentaries and updated versions of Halacha (Jewish law). In the first two chapters of Tanya, he claimed Jewish souls were derived from the Divine, whereas the souls of "the nations" (goyim/gentiles) are derived from evil. So "all the good that the nations do, is done from selfish motives....all the charity and kindness done by the nations of the world is only for their own self-glorification."

Rabbi Shneur Zalman

Zalman also said: "All Jews are good by nature, all non-Jews are evil by nature. The Jews are creation's crowning glory, the non-Jews are the scum of the earth." (Quoted in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11 March 1994, p. 14) That this is a "master race" ideology, is seen by the fact that he also said in chapters 18 and 19 of Tanya that even the lowest Jew has a "spark" of the Divine. "The inwardness of a Jew....remains intact in every Jew, regardless of his outward status and whatever the outward circumstances may be." (Schneerson, Letters by the Lubavitscher Rebbe 1956-1980, Brooklyn, New York: Kehot Publication Society, 1981, p. 13)

This book is openly sold by Jewish bookstores, while the hate-filled Tanya holds such reverence among the Chabad movement that it contains the entire work on its official website. Chabad subscribes to this ideology which sees the Jews inherently as "divine," while castigating all Gentiles as inherently "inferior" solely by fact of birth and lineage: "The basic religious and social mission of Habad is thus intended to elevate the conscious choice of the individual to the level of his inner Jewish choseness, that is, to actualize his inner given holiness." (Aviezer Ravitzky, Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism, University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 191)

Schneerson taught that Jews were uniquely "chosen" and granted innate holiness, which further entrenches an ontological barrier between Jews and non-Jews, leading to the exclusivism that really defines Chabad. Schneerson taught that each morning, Jews should give thanks to God for having restored their "Jewish souls", as "'life' is Jewish life only", so that "his entire vitality and life consist - in his being a Jew." (Schneerson, On the Essence of Chassidus, Brooklyn, NY: Kehot Publication Society, 1986, pp. 49, 73) This book is likewise taught on the Chabad website and can be openly purchased from Jewish bookstores.

"Souls of Gentiles unclean"

The following excerpts are from the text Tanya, which is a major part of Chabad's "outreach" efforts. It was written by the first Chabad Rebbe and is much studied by Chabad as "the one-size fits all life manual." Here is their true teachings against all non-Jews, laid bare for any honest observer:

"The souls of the nations of the world (i.e. all Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc.), however, emanate from the other, unclean 'kelipot' (evil forces) which contain no good whatever." (Tanya, New York/London: Kehot Publication Society, 1973, p. 5)

"However, the 'kelipot' (evil forces) are subdivided into two grades, one lower than the other. The lower grade consists of the three 'kelipot' which are altogether unclean and evil, containing no good whatever. From them flow and derive the souls of all the nations of the world (i.e. all Christians, Muslims, etc.), and the existence of their bodies, and also the souls of all living creatures that are unclean and unfit for consumption." (ibid., Chapter 6, p. 25)

"To elucidate still further, it is necessary to clarify the meaning of the verse 'The candle of God is the soul of (neshamah) of man.' What it means is that the souls of Jews, who are called 'man', are, by way of illustration, like the flame of the candle, whose nature it is always to scintillate upwards....Now this is a general principle in the whole realm of holiness....This stands in direct contrast to the so-called 'Kelipah' (evil forces) and 'sitra achara' (the other, evil side), where from are derived the souls of the Gentiles....Therefore they (the Gentiles) are called 'dead.'" (ibid., Chapter 19, pp. 77, 79)

Thus, Chabad lumps all Gentiles with pigs, snakes, worms, and all other "creatures that are unclean and unfit for consumption." There are also comparisons to dogs: "Thus an Orthodox Jew learns from his earliest youth, as part of his sacred studies, that Gentiles are compared to dogs." (Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, London: Pluto Press, 1994, p. 94) This serves as a theological basis behind the actions of Israeli political and military leaders and the Zionist movement, to dehumanize the Palestinian "goyim" and legitimize their genocide. "[Israeli Prime Minister Menachem] Begin called the Palestinians in Lebanon 'two-legged animals' and [Israeli military chief of staff Rafael] Eytan referred to them as 'cockroaches in a bottle.'"(New York Times, August 5, 1985, p. 1) "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail."(Rabbi Yaacov Perrin at a eulogy for mass-murderer Baruch Goldstein. Quoted in the New York Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1). "A thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew's fingernail."(Rabbi Dov Lior, chairman of the Israeli army's Jewish Rabbinic Council, quoted in Stephen Lendman, "Religious Fundamentalism in Israel").

Hateful anti-Gentile ad on back of Israeli bus

"The Gentile waits to be told what the Jew wants"

The above picture is an advertisement on the back of a Jerusalem bus belonging to the bus company Egged. A contract for its subsidiary company was lost in the Netherlands due to Egged's support for oppression of the Palestinians. The ad in the picture above says: "Statement of the kingdom. From the teachings=instructions of the rabbi [Schneerson]. The Gentile does not want anything. He waits to be told what the Jew wants!"

Schneerson on Jews and Gentiles as "two separate species"

"A non-Jew should be punished by death if he kills an embryo, even if the embryo is non-Jewish, while the Jew should not be, even if the embryo is Jewish. The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person stems from the common expression: 'Let us differentiate.' Thus, we do not have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior level. Rather we have a case of 'let us diffentiate' between totally different species. This is what needs to be said about the body: the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all nations [goyim] of the world.

"The Jewish body 'looks as if it were in substance similar to bodies of non-Jews,' but the meaning is that the bodies only seem to be similar in material substance, outward look and superficial quality. The difference of the inner quality, however, is so great that the bodies should be considered as completely different species.

"This is the reason why the Talmud states that there is an halachic difference in attitude about the bodies of non-Jews: 'and their bodies are in vain'....An even greater difference exists in regard to the soul. Two contrary types of soul exist, a non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness.

"The body of a Jewish embryo is on a higher level than is the body of a non-Jew....We therefore ask: Why should a non-Jew be punished if he kills even a non-Jewish embryo while a Jew should not be punished even if he kills a Jewish embryo? The answer can be understood by the general difference between Jews and non-Jews: A Jew was not created as a means for some [other] purpose; he himself is the purpose, since the substance of all [divine] emanations was created only to serve the Jews: 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' means that [the heavens and the earth] were created for the sake of the Jews, who are called the 'beginning.'

"This means everything, all developments, all discoveries, the creation, including the 'heavens and the earth' - are vanity compared to the Jews. The important things are the Jews, because they do not exist for any [other] aim; they themselves are [the divine] aim." (Schneerson, Gatherings of Conversations, 1965; quoted in Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, London: Pluto Press, 1999, pp. 59-60)

Bush serving Chabad

All Gentile politicians expected to serve

Ovadia Yosef's Anti-Gentilism, Racism in Israel, and the Failing Zionist Experiment

Ovadia Yosef's Anti-Gentilism, Racism in Israel, and the Failing Zionist Experiment

by Sean Jobst

April 15, 2015

[The following is a parallel study, along with the previous article "Netanyahu's Disturbing Chabad Connections", on Netanyahu's connections to Jewish fundamentalists who hate Gentiles and who wield influence over Israel's policies]:

Ovadia Yosef on Netanyahu: "I respect him."

While the Chabad movement is rooted in Ashkenazim, the Sephardic branch of Jewry is not without its own fundamentalist equivalents. This was symbolized by Shas, the political party founded by Iraqi-born Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. He was generally well-regarded within general Haredi circles, which included the Chabad movement. When he died in 2013, Netanyahu remembered him as one of the "great halachic authorities of our generation." To invoke his "halachic authority" clearly means that Netanyahu agreed with his rulings on Jewish law.

"Moderate" Shimon Peres getting Yosef's blessing

Rabbi Yosef's influence within Israeli political circles was demonstrated by the fact that those eulogizing him also included President Shimon Peres (an alleged "moderate"), Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky. Such praises abounded among Israeli leaders, with only former Meretz leader Yossi Sarid not joining the chorus; on March 3, 2000, Yosef said in a sermon: "God will uproot him just as he uproots Amalek; that is how he will uproot him. Haman is cursed? Yossi Sarid is cursed." (Ma'ariv, March 19, 2000). So much for the much-vaunted Israeli "democracy"!

"Gentiles were born only to serve the people of Israel"

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said in his sermon on October 18, 2010: "The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews. Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap; and we will sit like an effendi [overseer] and eat. That is why gentiles were created. In Israel, death has no dominion over them....With gentiles, it will be like any person - they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one's donkey would die, they'd lose their money. This is his servant.... That's why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew. Gentiles were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world - only to serve the People of Israel." (Quoted in Jonah Mandel, "Yosef: Gentiles exist only to serve Jews," The Jerusalem Post, October 18, 2010)

"It is forbidden to be merciful to the Arabs. You must annihilate them with missiles"

In 2001, Ovadia Yosef said in a sermon about the Arabs: "It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable. The Lord shall return the Arabs' deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them, devastate them and vanish them from this world." (Quoted in "Rabbi calls for annihilation of Arabs," BBC News, 10 April 2001; and Greg Myre, "On the Air, Palestinians Soften Tone on Israelis," The New York Times, December 15, 2004).

One wonders what the reaction would be if a nationalist leader in a European country, an extreme Christian fundamentalist in the United States, or an Islamic leader in a Muslim country uttered such genocidal statements against the "others". Yet, when it relates to Jewish fundamentalism the ties of such leaders as Peres and Netanyahu to such purveyors of hate gets a free pass. One has to wonder what could go through the minds of those who describe such hate-mongers as "moderate," such as what The Jewish Chronicle said in its obituary which memorialized Yosef as "The most significant halachic authority of the last 100 years, whose positions helped fashion a balanced and moderate Judaism."  (Joe Wolfson, "The enduring legacy of Rav Ovadia Yosef," The Jewish Chronicle, London, 11 October 2013, p. 33)

Hurricane Katrina "divine punishment of the blacks of New Orleans"

In 2005, Yosef said about Hurricane Katrina: "There was a tsunami and there are terrible natural disasters, because there isn't enough Torah study....Black people reside there [New Orleans]. Blacks will study the Torah? [God said,] 'Let's bring a tsunami and drown them'....Hundreds of thousands remained homeless. Tens of thousands have been killed. All of these because they have no God." (Quoted in Zvi Alush, "Rabbi: Hurricane punishment for pullout," YNet News, 7 September 2005; and "Shas rabbi: Hurricane is Bush's punishment for pullout support," Associated Press, 7 September 2005)

American evangelical "Christian" Zionist leader Pat Robertson publicly blamed Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans on "voodoo," much like he had previously did the same for the Haitian earthquake - both instances exhibiting his latent racism toward blacks. He was justifiably condemned for his remarks by the same U.S. media which seemed silent about Rabbi Yosef's comments (as with other Zionist hate-speech). When some Islamic leaders often idiotically ascribe blame to natural disasters as some kind of punishment, such pro-Zionist outfits as MEMRI are quick to seize upon such ridiculous, reactionary statements for their own political benefit - meanwhile, not a peep from these same "activists" when it comes to statements from the likes of Rabbi Yosef!

Racism in Israeli Society

In his last re-election campaign, Netanyahu's outreach to Sephardic fundamentalism paid off as they represented a major bloc behind his success, according to an Associated Press report. The irony is there have been questions of Netanyahu's own feelings about the Sephardic Jews, such that the former Moroccan Jewish caretaker of Netanyahu's household, Meni Naftali, sued his former employer in March 2014 over abusive and racist treatment, including Netanyahu's wife, Sara's statement: "We are Europeans. We are refined, we don't eat as much as you Moroccans. You are fattening us and then when we are photographed abroad, we look fat." (That Zionism started and grew as a rejection of Europe belies the claim of being "European", but this is another topic).

There is discrimination within Israel based on skin color and complexion even among Jews, a fact ironically highlighted recently by Jewish-American Donald Sterling, the racist ex-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team: "You go to Israel, the black Jews are treated like dogs. Black Jews are less than white Jews. I give them cars, houses, food." This extends to the Ethiopian Falasha Jews, whose sect predates the Talmud (although many have since been adopting Rabbinical Judaism); the Black Hebrews living in Dimona; Bene Israel Jews originally from India; and even generally toward many Sephardic Jews.

The Failing Zionist Experiment

In my opinion, Netanyahu represents a vision of Zionism which has nostalgia for the Ashkenazic culture that specifically arose out of the shetls and ghettoes of Eastern European Jewry. Due to his desire to maintain this character of Israel, Netanyahu has been capitalizing on the alleged rise of  "anti-Semitic" incidents across Europe to stampede European Jews to flee to Israel, in a desperate effort both to stem the tide of (mostly Ashkenazi) Jews fleeing from Israel and provide more settlers to pursue the Zionist expansionist agenda. Demographically, Netanyahu and his ilk are desperate to attract more Jews to Israel in order to grab yet more land from the Palestinians.

Such reasons for the emigration from Israel are high prices and taxes, compulsory military service, and, as pointed out by Ha'aretz columnist Ravit Hecht, the rise of ultra-nationalist fundamentalism. Yet, even a "moderate" such as the late Yitzhak Rabin called those who left Israel a "cascade of wimps" and "fallout of cowards." The reality of Israel is that it has a poverty rate higher than Mexico and Turkey, and is a welfare state propped up by aid from other countries, most notably the United States, and "reparations" from Germany.

Little wonder that increasing numbers of Israeli youth have given up on the Zionist experiment. For example, in 2005 alone the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics announced 650,000 Israelis away for over a year hadn't returned. Some estimates show 40% of Israelis want to leave the country! As British journalist Yvonne Ridley states in a recent article, "This intellectual exodus of Jewish talent is troubling Netanyahu and the rest of the Knesset because it means that the Zionist dream is faltering. Perhaps the Israeli leadership is also worried that, in stark contrast, global calls for the Palestinians to be availed of their right of return to their homeland are growing with each new generation."

Netanyahu's Disturbing Chabad Connections (Part 1)

Netanyahu's Disturbing Chabad Connections (Part 1)

by Sean Jobst

April 15, 2015

When criticizing the fundamentalist element of a religion, criticism is always most effective coming from adherents of that religion. Being a Gentile (non-Jew) in both religion and lineage, my criticisms of Jewish fundamentalism stem from its danger to the world and the fact that, unlike certain Christian or Islamic extremist movements, it does not receive nearly as much scrutiny (I would argue due to the disproportionate control Jews have over the world's media). Just as speaking out against extremist trends of other religions doesn't necessarily mean hating all the adherents of the entire religion, so too must my criticisms of this dangerous Judaic Talmudic ideology in control of a state (Israel) be seen in the same vein.

Zionist media outlets spread alarmist fears about the alleged messianism of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, implying that his own personal belief as a Shi'ite in the twelfth imam had a direct impact on Iran's policies (even if it was true, the President has little control over determining Iran's foreign policy). Many American progressive outlets (rightly) pointed out the weird apocalyptic beliefs exhibited among the Neocons during the Bush Administration, such as how Paul Wolfowitz and intelligence leaders at the Pentagon invited Michael Drosnin, expert on the cabbalistic-derived (but contrary to Christianity) "Bible Code" to brief them in February 2003 - just a month before the bombing and invasion of Iraq on the day of Purim, March 20, 2003.




Purim at a Chabad gathering in New York, March 17, 2003. Notice both the uniforms and the timing - very significant

Netanyahu quotes self-proclaimed "messiah" Lubavitcher Rebbe in U.N. speech

Evidence of Netanyahu's own messianism and its effects on Israeli policies has also been uncovered, highlighting his disturbing links with the Lubavitch Chabad movement, as symbolized by his speech before the United Nations in September 2011. Netanyahu quoted reverently from his meetings with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, in the 1980s and 1990s. He affectionately called Schneerson "the great rabbi." Both held the same vision of an expansionist Israel that would yield no land while ethnically cleansing the Palestinian Gentiles from land which was now viewed as solely the property of Jews. Even many Israeli observers are alarmed at such a worldview:

"Relying on the Lubavitcher Rebbe and his teachings in a speech that was ostensibly in favor of a Palestinian state is like relying on a racist who fervently supports slavery in a speech that is ostensibly in favor of abolition, while also making abolition contingent upon conditions that will never be met. And thus, in a speech that warned about the danger of radical Islam, Netanyahu relied upon the most radically messianic Jewish theologian of our generation." (Sefi Rachlevsky, "Netanyahu's messianism could launch attack on Iran," Ha'aretz, September 27, 2011) 

While he served as Israeli Ambassador to the U.N., Netanyahu was a frequent visitor to the Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn. Netanyahu later told reporters what Schneerson had told him during one such meeting in 1984: "Remember, you are going to the UN. There is an assembly hall there that has eternal falsehood, utter darkness. Remember that in a hall of perfect darkness, totally dark, if you light one small candle, its light will be seen from afar. Its precious light will be seen by everyone. Your mission is to light a candle for truth and the Jewish people." (Cited in Matthew Wagner, "Netanyahu: UN speech was inspired by the Rebbe," The Jerusalem Post).

Netanyahu promises Schneerson to "hasten the messiah's coming"

One of the defining features of the Chabad Lubavitcher movement - unlike other sects of orthodox Judaism or even Hasidism - was that it actively sought to "hasten" the coming of the awaited "messiah" (moshiach), contrary to the other sects who were merely waiting for him rather than actively seeking to hasten his coming. In this sense, the Chabad movement is very much a modern-day version of the Sabbatai Zevi movement. Even more than other messianic movements is the amount of political influence Chabad has achieved.

A video available on the official Chabad website, and elsewhere, we see a meeting between Netanyahu and Schneerson on November 18, 1990 in New York City. For all the world to see and which no Zionist apologist can deny, Netanyahu clearly promises Schneerson that he will actively work for this messianic vision:

- Schneerson: "Much success. I haven't seen you in a long time. Blessing and success. A double portion of benediction."
- Netanyahu: "I came to ask your blessing and help."
- Schneerson: "In everything?"
- Netanyahu: "In all areas - both personal and political."
- Schneerson: "Since we last met many things have progressed."
- Netanyahu: "Many things have progressed."
- Schneerson: "What hasn't changed, however, is that Moshiach still hasn't come; so do something to hasten his coming."
- Netanyahu: "We're doing, we're doing."
- Schneerson: "Apparently it's not enough, since many hours have already passed today and he's still not here. But there are still a few hours left in the day, so try still for today."
- Netanyahu: "Yes."
- Schneerson: "Good tidings - with joy and happiness. You know that Chassidim are careful to do everything with joy."
- Netanyahu: "Yes."
- Schneerson: "Good tidings. Much success."

In Memorium: Bernd Jobst (23 August 1947 - 1 April 2014)

In Memorium: Bernd Jobst (23 August 1947 - 1 April 2014)

by Sean Jobst

It was one year today that I lost my father. His physical presence in this world ended that day, but his spirit remains ever-present and will do so well into the future. His is a spirit which instilled valuable lessons into my life, and my resilience allows me to move ahead with life in the best way - to enjoy life, to not take a second for granted, and to live it with a purpose.

He impacted my life in several crucial ways. He laid the foundations for my early curiosity of the world, nurturing the love of learning in me. The environment he laid out for his young son was one of learning and reading. From an early age, I was instilled with the importance of being open minded and to question things and investigate for myself.

This also extended to a general attitude toward life. He had a very good sense of humor and was generally relaxed about life. You could tell he enjoyed life and treasured the small things which many others often take for granted. Life to him was a joyous event to be lived according to the effort we put into life. And depending on our own efforts, those results came to us in varied ways for us to derive the right life lessons out of them.



There are two wolves in your heart: Which one will you feed in life?

He passed down several things to me. From him was passed down my own German (Swabian) and Spanish lineage, which has shaped my identity. He was a Vietnam veteran, and so a deep respect and admiration toward veterans was also given to me. I remember fondly going with him to veteran's meetings when I was young, seeing and hearing at an early age valuable insights which I hold dear to my heart even to this day. His is a story of immigration and war, of human sorrow but also the rising of the human spirit.

My father was born on August 23, 1947, in Bad Canstatt, Germany. I remember him telling me so many memories from his earliest period in Deutschland. "The sum of all my experiences made me what I am," he told me when I profiled him in 2009 for a class assignment. "Living in a war-torn country, seeing bombed-out ruins and not realizing what it was all about as a kid, but growing up those experiences help shaped who I am."

He cited several of his earliest memories: "The school, going to the park seeing ancient Roman sites, the historical statue of Kaiser Wilhelm riding a horse, walking down to the indoor swimming pool, playing in bombed-out ruins, going out to the country seeing a castle on the hill in the old family village. Also riding on the back of an apple wagon taking the apples somewhere to be pressed into cider, and crossing the bridge to go to our Catholic church."

Schloss Baldern, the castle in our old village

In 1957, he immigrated at the young age of 9 to the United States. Like many other Germans of his generation - and earlier generations - his knowledge of America was shaped by the works of Karl May, works he would often mention in conversation with me. "In Germany as a young kid I read the Westerns of Karl May, which described Indians and life in the Old West. It was an unknown place but I didn't fear it because I was with my parents."

Moving to a different environment brings many challenges, as it did with him: "I had to learn the language, total immersion into the language. I learned how to speak English within six months time. I also remember being called offensive names like 'Nazi' because of where I came from."

Recounting his life to me on numerous occasions throughout my growing up, I was continuously impressed with the living history that can be seen through his own life. "I did alot of things in those days which kids couldn't do now, and I felt very safe and secure. We moved to Alaska during the time it was being granted statehood."

The family ultimately settled in Worth County, Missouri, a humble rural farming area which formed some of my own summer memories growing up. He was immersed into this environment which further nurtured many life lessons - the value of hard work, earning an honest living, enjoying life and what you do. "Every summer I wanted to stay with my grandparents on the farm. And I learned alot farm work, how to appreciate more about agriculture. I did this every summer until I joined the army." 

In 1964, he joined the U.S. Army. "I wanted to see Europe again and joining the army was the best way to guarantee this," he later explained to me. He became an infantryman with the 9th Infantry Division, ultimately rising to the rank of SPC4. His military career took him to Germany, Norway, Greece, Turkey, and Taiwan. I remember many little memories he had here and there, as he talked frequently about them to me.

His unit was later shipped out to Vietnam and he served there. Like other veterans, he was wary of talking directly about his own experiences there and I know there was alot of traumatic memories that I was careful not to trigger either. What he did left me was some of the retrospective reflections he had about Vietnam itself. "Don't get involved with other countries' civil wars, and don't support the old colonial powers. Learn the culture of a country before you think you can run it. Know what you are actually up against."

He was wounded and soon earned two Purple Hearts. I remember he told me about his time in an army hospital in Japan in 1970, and his subsequent return back Stateside. He took some classes at Parkville Community College in Parkville, Missouri, and worked for the Social Security Administration Center in Kansas City, MO. It was there that he met his wife, my mother. Neither I nor any of his other children and grandchildren would be here today without this experience at the Social Security Administration.

Kansas City, Missouri

"The opportunity then came for me to work at the Federal Bureau of Prisons," my father recounted to me. "There was more money and advancement, and a better retirement system because it was under law enforcement."

"I worked in the administrative section, doing sentence computations by interpreting court documents and ensuring that proper sentencing guidelines had been followed by the court," he added. "We dealt with the release and admission of inmates. We were the first ones they dealt with when they came and the last ones when they left."

His work brought him to several transfers, in Kansas and California. He moved to Alabama when he received a job transfer to the Talladega facility in 1984. I was born late the next year, on December 24, 1985, in nearby Fort McClellan, Alabama. One of my earliest memories was an event at the prison which made national headlines. For an entire week, from August 21-30, 1991, twenty-three detainees took control over the prison and several hostages.

Federal Prison in Talladega, Alabama

"When the riot occurred, everyone was recalled to get everything under control again. There were still fires smoldering and you could smell the smoke from the tear gas and smoke grenades the riot control used," he recounted to me. "After the initial riot and when we took the prison back, there was alot of overtime to try to get things back to normal."

My father retired from the prison in 1997, and after that time remained active in his work with fellow veterans - helping them to navigate the paperwork of federal bureaucracy and get the benefits they earned from the VA. His main "work" - if you can call it that, because it was something he simply loved to do and he didn't see his calling as "work" - was as a service officer, serving other veterans.

He made it very clear that life should be appreciated and enjoyed. Do what you love to do and follow your passion, and you won't have to work a day in your life. He was a very wise man who imparted numerous bits of wisdom to me, which impacted my own memories. "We as a society need to read and do our own thinking," he used to tell me. "To me reading the old classics encouraged you to dream. We had to read more and didn't have much television to divert our minds."

It is in retrospect of the memories, with a heavy heart but also a passionate mind to the future, that I recount my memories of him. Let this be a celebration of his life, which is what he would've wanted. This is also a reminder to me that as I move forward, there are promises I made to him in life and after his death, that I need to keep as I forge ahead in my own life. My resilience and the passion for life that was nurtured in me from an early age, is what keeps me going with a renewed spirit.

Missed but never forgotten

We as a society often ignore death, shutting it away and preferring not to think about it. But this is a very wrong approach. For if we remember death, we can also appreciate life more - never for one second questioning what we are given. Life is like a cycle - with each death there is a life reborn, with every memory there is a life lesson to be derived. He often reflected about philosophies of death with me, which is why I now reflect on a celebration of life - a life that continues to touch other lives as it soars to even higher spirits.

Netanyahu's re-election uncovers his record in deception

Netanyahu's re-election uncovers his long record in deception

by Sean Jobst

March 28, 2015

Benjamin Netanyahu won the election by rallying and galvanizing the most extremist elements of Israeli society. Eyewitnesses have attested to the reality of the religious Zionist current and its role in the election. "A week ago I was in Rabin Square for a rally by the Netanyahu forces, and they were terrifying," writes Philip Weiss on March 23rd. "The people I met in the street said racist and foolish things about Arabs, both Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett made religious statements bordering on lunacy about the Jewish right to the land."

Netanyahu knows he can do whatever he wants, due to the full complicity of the same U.S. Congress which adulates him whenever he appears before them. Its unprecedented that a body elected by their constituents to uphold the sovereign laws of the U.S., will assume such a self-deprecating posture towards the leader of a foreign country, giving him more standing ovations than they give even to the President of their own country! The whole rabble from both political parties have generally sold out lock, stock and barrel to AIPAC. They are eager to receive their "master" Netanyahu whenever he graces his underlings with his presence. A former AIPAC member has exposed the game:

"On all matters relating to Israel and the Middle East in general, AIPAC writes the legislation (or letters, resolutions, etc.) which are then handed over to legislators to drop in the hopper, gather cosponsors, and get it passed or sent. Not only that, the ideas for these initiatives come out of AIPAC rather than (as is usually the case with lobbies) starting with the Member of Congress who then asks the lobby for help with drafting. AIPAC does it all, from soup to nuts." (MJ Rosenberg, "How We Know AIPAC Wrote The GOP’s 'Treason' Letter To Iran," March 9, 2015).

Netanyahu: Master of Deception

"Bibi" Netanyahu is a master of deception, who has a PhD. in deceiving the world with his policies and intentions, knowing full well that much of the world's media and governments will be complicit through their silence. He has been leading a propaganda campaign to drum up support against Iran, speaking about an inflated threat which even the Mossad discounts as exaggerated and fabricated. He has been working overtime, exploiting the international environment after 9/11 to Israel's benefit.

Netanyahu is reaping the fruits from a long record of lies and propaganda that dates back even before the founding of Israel. From the time when he was still the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, it was Netanyahu who led a propaganda campaign against UN Secretary-General (and later President of Austria) Kurt Waldheim, defaming him since Waldheim criticized Israel's invasion of Lebanon and atrocities against Palestinians and Lebanese. As former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky writes:

"There was growing dissatisfaction in the Mossad and in the right-wing elements of the Israeli government regarding the behavior of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who was defying direct Israeli warnings regarding his relationship with the Austrian leader Kurt Waldheim, who'd been branded a Nazi. (The branding was done by a field unity of Al that entered a UN building on Park Avenue South in New York and placed several incriminating documents that had been removed from other files into Waldheim’s file and the files of a few other individuals-for future use. The falsified documents were then 'discovered' by Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Benjamin Netanyahu, as part of a smear campaign against Waldheim, who was critical of Israeli activities in southern Lebanon.)" (Victor Ostrovsky, The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda, New York: HarperCollins, 1994, pp. 228-229).

Habitual Liar: Twenty years later, different lies but same liar

"A Clean Break"

Netanyahu was Prime Minister when a group of American Neocons led by Richard Perle presented him with a policy document in 1996. Entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," it foreshadowed certain policies pursued by the same individuals who would later become the leading architects of the Iraq War. Let us be clear what this was: A group of American citizens collectively calling themselves "Neoconservatives," operate think-tanks and among themselves write up a document which they present to a foreign head of state.

Most of the proposals have already been followed, foremost being the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, an action which was greeted by many Israelis as "This war is for us!" However, other proposals shed light on the ongoing devastation in Syria. As part of the "containment" of Syria, it advocates stirring up civil war within that country through the use of proxies.

Now, with Israeli Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi's curious statement that "God has sent ISIS against nations that want to destroy Israel," we can connect the dots between the 1996 Clean Break document, the modern ISIS/Daesh terror in Syria and Iraq, and Netanyahu's reaction to 9/11 and the Iraq war: "We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq."

Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi

Netanyahu steals nuclear triggers from U.S.

As I documented in my earlier article, "Nuking 'Amalek'?", Israel is a nuclear-armed state which has not signed any anti-proliferation treaties. It is one whose leaders have frequently invoked the threat of nuclear weapons to strike fear into its neighbors and to blackmail its "allies" into giving into its every whim and demand. There is a certain hate ideology behind this entire debate, and it is one that can be easily discerned not only by Netanyahu's actions but also by looking at his friends and connections - a topic for a future blog post.

On July 27, 2012, the FBI partially declassified and released documents pertaining to its 1985-2002 investigation into the activities of Richard Kelly Smyth, who was convicted of running a U.S. front company that illegally smuggled nuclear triggers out of the U.S. into Israel. Through his contact, the Hollywood director Arnon Milchan, Smyth was put in contact with Netanyahu, who then worked at Heli Trading Company. According to the FBI report, "Smyth and [Netanyahu] would meet in restaurants in Tel Aviv and in [Netanyahu’s] home and/or business. It was not uncommon for [Netanyahu] to ask Smyth for unclassified material."

How has Netanyahu reacted to the revelations? As noted by the authors of a book on the subject, "Hollywood mega-producer and former secret agent Arnon Milchan has been asked directly by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres to avoid any public discussion of the book Confidential, asserting that the matter is too sensitive at this time." Given the dictates of his war-propaganda, it should be little surprise Netanyahu would want nothing more than to sweep his inconvenient record of lies, deception and crimes against the U.S. under the rug!

How Big Pharma suppresses real alternatives to its "final revolution"

How Big Pharma suppresses real alternatives to its "final revolution"

by Sean Jobst
March 27, 2015

A guiding principle in my life is nothing in this world happens by accident, not even the smallest occurrence. It is with that view in mind that two pieces of information recently came to my attention. One pissed me off, while the other gives me some further hope in humanity's future. On the one hand, I know that justice and truth will ultimately prevail in the end, but in the meantime the arrogance of the elites knows no bounds.

Growing up, I always took it for granted that homeopathic medicine is a legitimate and even better form of medical treatment, due to its use of holistic and metaphysical understandings that go to the root of an illness, rather than alleviating the symptoms like a band-aid approach that only sees the materialistic. Biology demonstrates the various elements that make up our body, elements that exist within nature. To me it goes without saying the same illnesses within our body, can be cured by the various elements that can be found within nature and correspond to our bodies.

One of the great contemporary medical minds to have come to this realization is the French Professor Luc Montagnier. In 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for having discovered the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in the early 1980s. He followed this up with ground-breaking research in 2009, which concluded that diluted DNA from pathogenic bacteria and viral species can emit specific radio waves associated with 'nanostructures'. If understood correctly, these radio waves could recreate the same pathogen and thereby heal the illness.

Scientific terminology is not my forte, but more light on the significance was shone so that even a scientific novice like me could understand. The research "verified that electromagnetic signals of the original medicine remains in the water and has dramatic biological effects," as leading American homeopathy advocate Dana Ullman observed, citing Montagnier's "experimental research that confirms one of the controversial features of homeopathic medicine that uses doses of substances that undergo sequential dilution with vigorous shaking in-between each dilution."

Montagnier expressed support for the basic homeopathic approach, in an interview published in Science magazine on December 24, 2010: "I can’t say that homeopathy is right in everything. What I can say now is that the high dilutions (used in homeopathy) are right. High dilutions of something are not nothing. They are water structures which mimic the original molecules." Referring to the typical claims made by the dominant medical community, he said about homeopathy: "it’s not pseudoscience. It’s not quackery. These are real phenomena which deserve further study."

The assumptions of modern science are often taken as dogma, to be accepted without question and if you doubt them, then you will be consigned to the margins of debate where only tin-foil hat-wearing "kooks" reside. Anything that challenges this scientific orthodoxy is simply ignored, no matter how much evidence challenges their dominant assumptions. In 2011, the Swiss government commissioned a massive study that showed homeopathy is more cost-effective than any other forms of medicine. It concluded: "Homeopathy is so well trusted that 300 million patients in more than 80 nations use it."

It is time to challenge this materialist reductionism which reduces everything to the strictly biological and ignores the fact that we are multi-faceted individuals. Their assumptions are anti-historical, as the assumptions are relatively new in history while challenging everything that ancient cultures and the various faith-traditions knew about the human being: that he/she is made with both body and soul. To deny this is only a product of the Enlightenment which has made certain economic and scientific assumptions into dogma, to replace the old religious orders.

"Tyranny begins with the abuse of language," George Orwell warns us. We can learn a lot about the world through studying language. This is certainly very true of medicine. The same "mind-inducing" drugs that are prescribed and sold to an already over-medicated populace, are known under the term "pharmacology." The origin is the Greek term "pharmakeia (φαρμακεία)", another meaning of which is "sorcery"! Which leads me to the second piece of information I mentioned earlier.

Aldous Huxley was a writer well-connected with certain Globalist power-elites (i.e. his brother, Julian Huxley, was a eugenicist and UNESCO founder who advocated population control, etc.), who accurately described many features of modern society, such as mass production, consumerism and "man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." Perhaps he was also alluding to the modern role of Big Pharma, when he gave a remarkable speech in Berkeley, California, in 1962:

"There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution."

Keeping the Greek origins of the word "pharmacology" in mind, we can clearly see the stupor and dependency that the corporate drug cartels (Big Pharma) have caused to an overmedicated populace. A populace that is overmedicated, dependent upon these man-made medicines to treat symptoms but not heal or cure, will continuously be one too weak to resist. It will be one that has to continuously spend money it doesn't have, which keeps the debt machine of the big bankers fueled. This cycle keeps going, breeding and in turn leading to more social control not only over the body but the mind - a "pharmalogical" control in every sense of the word. Who will resist distractions and take notice?

Bryan Fischer, the Racist Dominion Heresy, and Genocide of Native Americans

Bryan Fischer, the Racist Dominion Heresy, and Genocide of Native Americans

by Sean Jobst

March 21, 2015

A nine-day trip which took 60 Republican National Committee members to Israel beginning January 31, 2015, was funded by the American Family Association. Although coming from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) - a group with its own hypocritical political agenda - nevertheless the record of hate preached by this group raises serious questions about the links between "Christian" Zionists and a general racist ideology that extols the "superiority" of Anglo-Saxon Americans over all others, built around both a perverse reading of the Old Testament and American history.

Meet Bryan Fischer, a fanatical Zionist with close links to certain Tea Party groups. He gave up his own position as a spokesman of the American Family Association, although he continues as a daily radio host for its American Family Radio. Greeting news that the United States would sign a non-binding United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples in 2010, Fischer warned that President Obama "wants Indian tribes to be our new overlords," where he "will be the new chief over this revived Indian empire."

Fischer, 19th-century genocide advocate in 21st-century business suit

It goes without saying these bizarre fears were utterly unfounded. Obama had merely said the U.S. would "lend its support" to the declaration, vague verbiage that is clearly not an endorsement. In his blissful myopia ill-informed of history, Fischer failed to explain how the same federal government that has consistently ignored its own treaties with sovereign Native American nations, will suddenly find it in its heart not only to honor its own treaties with the limited land given to nations which are a miniscule fraction of what was promised, but actually yield its own power in some master conspiracy to cede land.

Fischer clearly has no knowledge about which he speaks. The sad reality is he expresses an ignorance of Native Americans and treaty obligations which is appallingly too common among Americans, as I experienced first-hand from my own two weeks learning experience on the Pine Ridge (Oglala Lakota) reservation and from the "schooling" I received from my Native American activist friends. I learned a very simple reality: The typical Native American knows far more about non-Native society than the non-Native American knows about Indian Country.

The history of these treaties is crucial to understanding the entire colonial structure that continues to obscure and rewrite history. "The people who are citizens of the U.S., these are your treaties. They aren't just the Indians' treaties," says Native activist Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee). "No one gave us anything. No one was dragging any land behind them when they came here. This was our land."

A genocidal revision of history

In February 2011, Bryan Fischer wrote a hateful screed entitled “Native Americans Morally Disqualified Themselves From the Land.” It is filled with the same sort of racist, colonial assertions one would think more representative of the 19th-century frontier than the 21st-century world-wide web. Initially appearing on the website of the American Family Association, in a sloppy attempt to hide the racism of their beloved, the AFA took down the article, but not before it had already spread like wildfire among a vigilant web-public.

We will examine this screed, and compare it with the actual facts of history and the present. Fischer asserts "the role that the superstition, savagery and sexual immorality of native Americans played in making them morally disqualified from sovereign control of American soil."

There was no such thing as "America" but that was a term given to the continent by later conquerors. Before that, it was known by other names, including to many indigenous nations as "Turtle Island" such as the Lenape (Delaware), Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Anishinabe (Ojibwa/Chippewa), and Lakota peoples. The name arose because of the shape of the "North American" continent, which resembled a turtle. This folklore was recorded by Dutch traveler Jaspar Danckaerts during his visit among the Lenape people between 1678 and 1680.

The fact that there was such legends that transcended different nations (I prefer this term over the colonial-ridden "tribes", which ignores the multi-faceted structure of peoples who also included clans and other forms), demonstrates a certain historical reality that refutes Fischer's portrayals of Native peoples as those "steeped in the basest forms of superstition, had been guilty of savagery in warfare for hundreds of years, and practiced the most debased forms of sexuality."

With his Anglo-Saxon Protestant exceptionalism, Fischer and those of his ilk similarly ignore how even their own term "American" includes an entire continent outside of only the United States and Canada. The various foods, resources and landscape of the continents had Indigenous names before Europeans "discovered" the continent. "Later on, the grandchildren of the Pilgrims seized the name and everything else. Now they are the Americans. And those of us who live in the other Americas, who are we?" (Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, New York: Nation Books, 2009, p. 130)

On what basis does Fischer speak about the Native peoples' "superstition, savagery and sexual immorality"? Judging by savagery alone, the brutal conquest of an entire conquest and wiping out entire nations to make room for this alleged "superior" culture that Fischer extols is the very essence of savagery. The least he can do is to acknowledge it, rather than cowardly mitigating responsibility and hiding behind racist assertions about their "superstition" and "sexual immorality." The tragedy here is the re-definition of "property" into tools of conquest and annihilation on the old frontier:

"White Americans saw the acquisition of property as a cultural imperative, manifestly the right way to go about things. There was one appropriate way to treat the land - divide it, distribute it, register it. This relationship to physical matter seems to us so commonplace that we must struggle to avoid taking it for granted, to grasp instead the vastness of the continent and the enormous project of measuring, allocating, and record keeping involved in turning the open expanses of North America into transferable parcels of real estate. Like the settlers themselves we steadfastly believe in the social fiction that lines on the map and signatures on a deed legitimately divide the earth. Of all the persistent qualities in American history, the values attached to property retain the most power." (Patricia Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West, New York: W.W. Norton, 1987, p. 56).

Dehumanization

Colonizers dehumanize the conquered people, in order to portray them as less than human, cheapen the sanctity of their lives, and thereby to justify any resulting oppression or genocide. This can often be done by simply denying the separate identity of the victimized people, such as the repeated Israeli-Zionist denials of a distinct Palestinian Arab identity. The Zionist Fischer himself makes a linkage of the two with his own "Christian" heresy based more on a literalist and selective reading of the Old Testament. One can be forgiven for forgetting that Fischer pays lip-service to the ethics of Jesus the Christ, rather than being an extremist rabbi on a West Bank settlement.

"The Amorites, or Canaanite peoples, practiced one moral abomination after another, whether it was incest, adultery, sexual immorality, homosexuality, bestiality or child sacrifice, and God finally said 'Enough!'," Fischer asserts. "By the time he brought the nascent nation of Israel to the borders of the land flowing with milk and honey, he had already been patient with the native tribes for 400 years, waiting for them to come to the place of repentance for their socially and spiritually degrading practices."

It lies beyond both my expertise or the scope of this article, to examine the truth of his claims. But what is most apparent is the selective hypocrisy engaged in by Fischer, who ignores the existence of these same things among the Israelites of the Old Testament. Incest was clearly practiced among the Hebrews (Genesis 29:16-28, Exodus 6:20, 2 Samuel 13:7-14, Ezekiel 22:10-11). Also to be found among the Hebrews was adultery (Genesis 38:13-24, 2 Samuel 11:3-5), bestiality (Ezekiel 23:20), and homosexuality (1 Kings 14:24, 15:12, 22:46, 2 Kings 23:7). Human sacrifice among even the ancient Hebrews abound throughout the Old Testament (2 Kings 3:27, 16:3, 21:6, 2 Chronicles 28:3, 2 Samuel 21:4-9, Psalms 106:37-38, Ezekiel 20:30-31). Thus, the very same things for which Fischer castigates the "heathen" peoples was exhibited among the "chosen" Israelites as well.

Old Testament perversion

Fischer's ideas represent a perversion of religious ethics, in service of a political ideology of conquest, dominion and brutality. That is, the very purpose of faith in One God and an Afterlife, are replaced with a Statist concern with the here-and-now of land and settlement. "Whatever Fischer’s profession of faith and doctrinal views, the religion he promotes and practices is the worship of the American Imperium," notes the Christian individualist William Grigg. "This is a heresy far deadlier than any of the indigenous forms of superstition it suppressed."

Invoking the Israelite annihilations of entire peoples recorded in the Old Testament, Fischer was preceded by the Puritans and other settlers, who did the same exact thing in their sermons and calls for "Manifest Destiny". Literal interpretation of these stories led to justifications for their own genocide and expulsions of the Native Americans. In their utter pursuit to grab the land for themselves, the Puritan settlers invoked Joshua and the "sacred" exterminations of the Amorites and Philistines. (Thomas Nelson, "The Puritans of Massachusetts," Judaism, Vol. 16, no. 2, 1967).

"Colonists of all epochs and all nations have always sought a 'justification' for their annexations, robberies and dominations. The pretext was usually found in an alleged 'superiority' of culture which endowed the invader with a 'civilising mission' for his 'race' in relation to others. A religious pretext offered a precious additional aid to such colonial conquests - or, more generally, to any domination of one social group over another." (Roger Garaudy, The Case of Israel: A Study of Political Zionism, London: Shorouk International, 1983, p. 70).

The genocidal process of precedence and history repeating itself has turned full-circle in the modern experience of the Israeli occupation and killing of Palestinians, as noted by Gary Fields, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of California-San Diego: "What is occurring on the Palestinian landscape has antecedents in the landscapes of enclosure and dispossession in England and the Anglo-American colonial frontier." (Fields, "'This is our land': collective violence, property law, and imagining the geography of Palestine," in Journal of Cultural Geography, 2012, p. 20)

Native American writer Steven Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) is co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute. He writes in an expose of the current subject: "Fischer’s Old Testament views deserve our pity and contempt. Perhaps, though, one ought to thank him for being so open and forthright with the kind of extreme thinking Christian fundamentalists accuse elements of the Muslim world of exhibiting. He has opened up for scrutiny the kind of thinking that has been foundational to the building of American society. We find it most evident in the Doctrine of Christian Discovery that exists in U.S. federal Indian law, as expressed in Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823), whereby the Court said that the first 'Christian people' to 'discover' lands inhabited by 'heathens' had assumed the 'ultimate dominion' to be 'in themselves.'"

Trail of Tears, 1838

The early British colonists initially conceded Indian ownership of land, but once their law redefined Indians as transient occupants, the culture of intolerance toward Indian property rights and presence on the landscape was inevitable. The landmark "Johnson v. M'Intosh" decision abrogated notions of Indian property ownership and transformed Indians into a new legal status as "tenants at will" (Fields, op. cit., p. 2). "By the early 19th century, ideologues for the new American nation, colonists and political leaders alike, conceived of the American landscape as a westward-expanding grid of property owners committed to improving land through cultivation and hard work." (ibid., p. 21).

When "Might-is-Right' philosophy becomes theological

Proving he subscribes to a materialist Social-Darwinist ethic couched in an Old Testament literalism, Fischer openly subscribes to the "Might-Is-Right" philosophy which has absolutely no place in the mind of one who allegedly follows the same Jesus who honored the meek (Matthew 5:5), was himself humble and meek (Matthew 11:29-30), counseled the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12), wept for the dead (John 11:33-35), healed people (Matthew 14:14, Mark 1:40-41), and associated with the Samaritans (John 4:4-42) - but who was unyielding against those (like Fischer) who pervert the scriptures to suit their own agenda, such as the Pharisees (John 8:44-45, Matthew 3:7, 23:13-15,23-29, Mark 8:15, Luke 11:39, Revelations 2:9, 3:9) and usurers or money-changers (Luke 6:34-35, Matthew 21:12-13).

Conquest is actually one of the ways that Fischer believes leads to this dominion theory of land, based on a might-is-right philosophy that gave the settlers "a legitimate claim on American soil." He further asserted, "And the Europeans proved superior in battle, taking possession of contested lands through right of conquest. So in all respects, Europeans gained rightful and legal sovereign control of American soil." Would Fischer similarly lament, given this "legal right" of conquest, over the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian and Roman conquests of his beloved "chosen people" the Israelites? Similarly, how would he respond to a potential "conquest" of America by another nation? I suspect he would quickly change his tune in such an instance!

Rounding up (settled) Cherokee people, prior to the Trail of Tears

The way people live seems to be one of Fischer's obsessions, such as when he compares how the settlers lived in contrast to the Native Americans: "They established permanent settlements on the land, moving gradually from east to west, while Indian tribes remained relentlessly nomadic." This assertion is patently anti-historical, given that most of the Native American tribes lived a settled, sedentary lifestyle, and even had their own towns and cities. Even though some tribes (especially on the Plains) were nomadic or semi-nomadic, I fail to see how this makes them somehow "inferior" to a "superior" settled people. It also doesn't square away with his own veneration of the ancient Hebrews, who themselves lived a nomadic lifestyle, a nomadic experience crucial to understanding their culture and religion, their nomadic 40 years "wandering in the wilderness" (Numbers 32:13), and the same Bible that actually spoke spiritual positive about a nomadic existence (Hebrews 11:38).

Evangelism and the Plight of Modern Native Americans

The rest of his article is devoted to actually praising the racism that U.S. founders such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had towards Native Americans. The crux of the matter is simply his own interpretation of a religion that Native Americans did not possess, lamenting about how "missionaries were murdered in cold blood," while not even blinking an eyelid about the same massacres and slaughter of Native Americans that he justifies and praises as fulfilling "God's work"! The hypocrite Fischer thus reveals his Orwellian forked tongue through the cold-blooded shivering fingers he used to type such a hateful screed!

Fischer laments how the "savages of the wilderness" held onto their "superstition and occult practices" rather than abandon these for "the light of Christianity and civilization." His evangelical bigotry extends even to the modern-day Native Americans: "Many of the tribal reservations today remain mired in poverty and alcoholism because many native Americans continue to cling to the darkness of indigenous superstition instead of coming into the light of Christianity and assimilating into Christian culture."

From: Bill Nye, History of The United States, 1894, p. 74

I have personally stood at the front-lines of this battle against alcoholism on the reservation, during my stay on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota reservation and blockade of the border city of Whiteclay, Nebraska. I doubt Fischer has ever been there, but even if he would've I suspect his racism is such that he would simply gloss over the truth:

Contrary to the laws on the Pine Ridge reservation and the Federal government's own treaty promises to the Lakota people, the whole town of Whiteclay is set up solely for the purpose of selling alcohol to Native Americans. The reality is that the liquor store owners exploiting the poverty and selling alcohol to Lakota people, are white "Christians"! This crime is being committed in plain sight of the same authorities who invoke scriptures when it suits them for political purposes.

On the other hand, the alcoholism of Whiteclay is being opposed and actively fought against by a group of non-Christian, traditional Lakota activists and elders, inspired by their own spirituality and a deep love for their people! I had the good fortune to meet and know these individuals, and my own European heritage makes me feel far more affinity towards them than to the Pharisaic-inspired, Old Testament-perverting, evangelical Zionism of such cretins as Bryan Fischer.