But I did especially appreciate one point made at the end of the comment that I want to share. It was a quote from a priest, Fr. John R. Sheehan, SJ from a 2002 article in The Journal for Historical Review, Is Israel Our Friend? I tried to find the article online but was unsuccessful. I could only find the reference to it. Here's the quote. I wish I could put it in the context of the article:
There's been no peace in the Mideast since Israel's inception--and most of the problem has come from US unconditional supply of weapons to Israel since the assassination of JFK and US veto in the UN of a Palestinian state. "Every time anyone says that Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, I can't help but think that, before Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East." Fr. John Sheehan.
Our history of meddling hasn't brought peace to the Middle East and has embroiled us in many wars leaving us with a huge price tag and, even worse, a lot of body bags returning our soldiers to their families. We also have countless physically and mentally damaged veterans among whom the suicide rate is alarming. Will Trump really bring about peace in that troubled region? Dropping the bunker bombs didn't involve the loss of any American lives. But what's next?
Victor David Hanson thinks what Trump has done changes everything in the Middle East and is optimistic. But what will the fallout be? As the video below summarized:
"It's easy to drop bombs; it's much harder to control the fallout: political, strategic, moral. So ask yourself, Did trump just prevent a nuclear crisis or light the fuse on a new one? Is the world safer today or just quieter before the storm? This isn't over."
That's an understatement. Maybe it's time to rewatch the film Exodus to remember the long-term hatred that fuels the hostilities in the Middle East. Fiction often reveals as much or more about reality than documentaries do. Isaac and Ishmael were half brothers, but you certainly can't see much love between them. What a tragedy!
My husband and I have added a second daily rosary to pray for peace: in our world, our country, and our families. Things are a mess! I don't feel as confident as some that bombing your neighbors into oblivion is the answer to the mess. What is? Don't ask me. I just pray to the one who has all the answers. "O Jesus, I surrender myself to you; take care of everything."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDB3L23UMCQ
ReplyDeleteThe Real Winners Of Every War
Yup! The military/industrial complex always thrives from war. "Love of money is the root of all evil."
DeletePadre Pio famously said the world could easier exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice. We have few valid priests offering few valid Masses. This is one of many reasons why I'm a sedevacantist. The worldwide moral rot began almost immediately after VII.
ReplyDeleteAnd how will you know when there is a legitimate pope? I've read several biographies of Padre Pio and have not come across the statements some say he made about a fake church. Even if he said it, there is no requirement for Catholics to believe he was correct. Even saints make mistakes. Who exactly will have the authority to tell us when we finally have a true pope?
DeleteIdk Mary Ann. There can be mystery in God's plans, but there cannot be contradiction in His Church. VII contradicts what the Church taught before the council.
DeleteExorcist Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time will come to rule a false Church.’”
Whether Padre Pio said this to Fr. Amorth or not, seems a strange thing to make up.
As history has shown time and time again, the only thing Islam understands is power and might....Charles Martel and the Battle of Tours, the Battle of Lepanto, Sobieski and the battle of Vienna....not to mention more recently when the Brooklyn Bloods made the Brooklyn Muslims back off and behave. So now we have Donald Trump showing power and might to crush Iran's nuclear power ambitions. Instead of hating on Israel, we should ask, "Is Iran our friend?" ...You know...as they chant, "Death to America!" If they had nuclear bombs they would definitely level Washington DC and NYC.
ReplyDelete'If they had nuclear bombs..........
ReplyDelete......so, what is the reason for the bombing of Iran, if they don't have nuclear bombs, as was posted. What about Gaza......where crimes against humanity have been committed for decades, crimes that cry out to Heaven for vengeance......who profits!!!
The only country that ever-used atomic bombs, was the US.......with no accountability, for there's no justice on earth.
Would be good for many Catholics to do some research, about the roots of Islam, and who was behind it, because of the hatred of Jesus Christ, and His Church...... already centuries ago.
United States has been taken over by 'the enemies of two stripes' without any military weapons, by the wise as a serpent.....for the children of darkness are wiser than the children of light.......
Thanks be to God, this God given country has deep 'Catholic roots'. May God increase our faith, nothing less than fearless faith...... may the scales fall off Catholic eyes, for the plague of blindness has blinded legions, to reclaim this country for Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords.........nothing less will suffice, for only truth will set us free.
Ave Maria...........
Surely you don't think Jews invented Islam. If you do, you'd better do more research and go to the origin of Islam at the Cave of Hira with Muhammad's vision of "Gabriel".
ReplyDeleteSt. John Bosco: In the year 570, Mohamed was born into a poor family, of a Jewish mother and gentile father, in Mecca an Arabian city not far from the Red Sea. Suffering from epilepsy, male caduco, he claimed his frequent falls were ecstasies where in he had conversations with the Angel Gabriel……and in composing his Qur’an he was assisted by a Jew and an apostate Monk.
ReplyDelete…excerpt from ‘The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit, and its impact on world history,” by E Michael Jones
……when the Mohammedans conquered Spain, the Jews flourished, achieving one of the most sophisticated cultures in Europe. The Sephardic Jews grew rich on slaves and usury. In 852, the Anales Bertinianos described the loss of Barcelona because the Jews ‘played the traitor,’ allowing the Moors (Arabs) to capture it. As a result, ‘nearly all the Christians’ were ‘killed; the city was devastated, ‘ and the Jews ‘retired unpunished.’……Even as Islam was rolled back to North Africa, the Jews continued to collaborate with the Muslims. Spanish Christians were persuaded that the Muslim invader had been welcomed by the Jews and assisted by them, with all this implied for the national and religious life of Spain. Because Jews, were above or beyond the law, Christians were often tempted to apostatize to obtain ‘freedom.’ (Sounds familiar, even today).
Because they had imbibed the best of Arab culture, becoming learned in science and medicine, Jews traveled in court circles……the governors and judges of the cities listened approvingly to heresy put forth by Jews…..they taught other Jews to blaspheme Christ and thus the Catholic faith was perverted. Given their number, influence, and sophistication under Muslim rule, Spain’s’ tolerance of the Jews and their heretical ideas exceeded that of any other European nation.
From Ishmael descend the present Arabs……. Ishmael persecuted Isaac, the Synagogue persecutes the Catholic Church, who are the true Israelites, united to Christ by faith. Nothing shows better the carnalized Judaic mentality than the terrible ‘Woes’ declared by the Jew, Our Lord Jesus Christ…….
Matthew 23; 13, 15, 16, 23, 24 27, 29-32, 33-35
I very much agree about praying the extra rosary. For about two years before she passed away a dear friend was encouraging me to say full rosary of 15 decades daily as she started doing. I have many hours to spend on the internet (like now), but only once a week (Thursday night holy hour) do I do as she asked.
ReplyDeleteNot so sure about the movie Exodus. I have seen the movie but I never thought it as good as the book which I read for the first time in 7th grade in the early 70s and several times thereafter. I have been thinking to read it again after I heard Larry Johnson (he comments on Sonar21 and J Napolitano) say several times that a whole generation was propagandized to being pro Israel by this movie/book. He has remarked how it ends with the blonde European Jewish girl Karen (left orphaned by holocaust) being raped to death by Arabs. [Other heroine is an American blonde gentile nurse (target audience?).]
I thought I knew all about the founding of Israel from reading Exodus, but don't remember UN representative Folke Bernadotte being assassinated in Exodus book/movie. I gained the impression from Exodus that most Israelis were against the terrorists (even as in the book they were rescued/hidden because uncle of Ari) but actually two of these terrorists became prime ministers: Menachim Begin and Yitzhak Shamir. I generally gained the impression that Arabs were deceitful, backward/dirty people who craved Jewish (European) women (like Karen and Ari's sister; like what racists say about black men) but now that I think of it I don't believe Islam, Muslim, Mohammed, or hijab were ever mentioned--it could be there was some mention of some Arab gangs associated with religious leaders working with the British but not part of the main characters/story line. Anyhoo, I would like to re-read it to see how historically accurate it is and what it says about the Nakba (I believe they depict the Arabs attacking the Jewish kibbutz). I remember that enmity came between Ari and his Arab friend when Israeli independence was declared and whose two villages had lived in peace until that time (far from what you are saying that always hated each other). However, I am not sure I could wade through it now that I am no longer starry eyed and know it's propaganda.
Once I learned about the collapse of building 7 on 911, I was never able to look at Israel or US the same again. 2,977 died on 911 and many more in the 20 year war that followed and continues. Apparently by 1996 500k children had been killed in Iraq by the sanctions which had been place on Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War from 60 minutes interview: "We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima," Stahl said. "And, you know, is the price worth it?" "I think that is a very hard choice," Albright answered, "but the price, we think, the price is worth it."
I just read today: "A new report published this month via the Harvard Dataverse reveals that at least 377,000 people in Gaza have been "disappeared" by the Israeli military since October 2023, with half of that number believed to be children. The report, authored by Israeli professor Yaakov Garb, uses data-driven analysis and spatial mapping"
In Exodus less than ten children about to starve to death on the deck of this boat which gives the book its name creates a big media event which is used to embarrass the British into increasing Jewish immigration to Palestine. I look at the big yawn/ridicule that greets the aid boat trying to sail to Gaza even when it is attacked by Israeli drones and then stopped by Israeli military and occupants arrested. The same with the march that people were trying to organize from Egypt to Gaza and I ask who controls the media and what stories/events get big coverage?
I did not rewatch the movie before writing the post. I also read the book years ago, but as I age my memory of things is pretty sketchy. Thanks for the comment. I posted it despite the length because it was so thought provoking.
DeleteThere's a story about two little boys that makes one ponder about.
ReplyDeleteThe first little boy who knocked the daylights out of the second little boy, and the first boy immediately started screaming, 'He hit me! He hit me!' The innocent second little boy found out how shouts prevailed, as in the case of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The second little boy was punished. The lying first little boy went free.......so it is until today, that the lying little boy is free......
…excerpt from “The Rulers of Russia”, by Fr. Denis Fahey
ReplyDelete…….Yet in a work entitled ‘The Jews’, published by the Jews of Paris in 1933, to protest against the ‘anti-Semitism’ of Hitler, we read:’
“......In spite of the frightful pogroms which took place, first in Poland and then in unprecedented fashion in Ukraine, and which cost the lives of thousands of Jews, the Jewish people considered the post-war period as a messianic era. Israel, during those years, 1919-1920, rejoiced in Eastern and Southern Europe, in Northern and Southern Africa, and above all in America.”
The Rulers of Russia, then, are Jewish Politicians, and they are applying to the world the doctrine of Karl Marx (Mardochai). Marx, according to the Jewish writer Bernard Lazare, was ‘’a clear and lucid Talmudist….full of that old Hebrew materialism which ever dreams of paradise on earth and always rejects the hope held out of the chance of a Garden of Eden after Death.” (L’Antisemitisme, p. 346)
This blog has become an anti-Israel hate platform.
ReplyDeleteHatred for the Palestinians is no virtue, Susan. Cheering the devastation in Gaza also illustrates hate. You would like to make things black and white. Israel is filled with saints and Gaza is filled with devils. Things aren't that simple.
DeleteTruth will only be thought of as a hate crime by those who hate the truth......
ReplyDeleteTruth is a narrow path; either side is an abyss (F. Sheen)
Hatred for the Jews is likewise no virtue for you, Mary Ann! No one but you has accused me of hatred for the Palestinians. There are saints and sinners on both sides. But the fact is that it was Muslims that strangled Shiri (young wife and mother), Kifir (age 8 months) and Ariel (age 3) to death with their bare hands because of Islam's hatred for Jews. It was Muslims who started this most recent war by killing young people, mowing them down, blowing them up as they huddled in shelters, killing families in their homes, and were joyful about it, filing themselves in ther happiness and joy, then taking 252 hostages. And please, "anonymous", enough of your Jew hatred and "Free Palestine from the river to the sea" genocide trash. You think your view makes you on the side of truth by quoting Archbishop Sheen. Well, I quote screams of Shiri as she's being strangled to her death while seeing her babies being killed. And I quote Kfir as he's being stragled in his innocent babyhood. And I quote the muffled screams of Ariel as he's being strangled to death with his mother and brother. ".......?! No nononono why why why!!??......"
ReplyDeleteYou equate disagreement over the policies and tactics used in the Middle East as hatred of the Jews and Israel. In the past you've justified the scorched earth policy of Israel against Gaza. You're apparently deaf to the cries of Muslim children starving to death because of the blockade on aid and the refusal to allow refugees to leave. I condemn the murderous behavior of Hamas, but it doesn't justify some of Israel's acts of retaliation against civilians, mostly women and children.
DeleteDid not Christ say: He that is not with Me, is against Me?
Delete~Luke 11:23
True yesterday, today and forever....
.... only truth saves souls, false love of neighbors leads to perdition.
Viva Cristo Rey!
Anon 6/26/25 @ 2:37. Jesus said "he who is not with ME is against ME." But to his apostles he said, "he who is not against you, is for you." (Mark 9:39) Only truth might save souls, but if you deprive someone of one meal when they are hungry let alone starve them to death, you'd best consider at your judgement that Jesus Christ will consider you denied Him (Matthew 25:31-40).
DeleteJesus rebuked James and John for asking Him if they should call down fire upon the town that did not receive (were not with) Him: "you know not of what spirit you are. The Son of Man came not to destroy souls but to save." (Luke 9:55-56) Contrast with: "But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." (Romans 12:20)
Children who are under the age of reason are not even capable of sin and very rarely any child of mortal sin: "Whosoever shall receive this child in My name, receiveth Me; and whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth Him that sent Me." (Luke 9)"Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me: for the kingdom of heaven is for such." (Matthew 19:14). "Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh." (Matthew 18:3-7)
If you don't see that Gaza is a scandal and there are many, many others in this world, may Viva Cristo Rey help you (Matthew 7:21-23) for the dogs also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.
“GOD does not command us to conquer; he only insists that we fight.”
ReplyDelete— Bishop Charles-Émile Freppel, (1827-1891)
The southern border of Gaza is with Egypt. Egypt will not let the Palestinians nto Egypt because they do not want them. Where is your Egypt blame/hate?
ReplyDeleteAh...the red herring fallacy: A red herring fallacy is an attempt to redirect a conversation away from its original topic. A red herring is used by introducing an irrelevant piece of information that distracts the reader or listener. This can be intentional or unintentional.
DeleteAs a result, one can divert others’ attention away from the original discussion topic or avoid answering a difficult question.
"The southern border of Gaza is with Egypt." The southern border of the US is with Mexico so all the Mexicans should enter US when Venezuela occupies Mexico? You live in Florida. Imagine Cuba occupies Florida. Even if Georgia welcomed you, how would you feel about all your lost property? Should you just forget about it? What will you have to resettle with - should the Georgians not only let you in but give all Floridians homes, educations and jobs? Israel has destroyed Gaza hospitals, universities, schools, homes, water plants, sewage, streets etc. I read today Israel is getting ready to ask the US for financial assistance to rebuild the destruction caused in Israel by their pre-emptive attack on Iran (and also to rebuild their weapons stockpile). Trump says the Arab countries should pay to rebuild Gaza (and then he should benefit by getting the real estate contracts). What is the GDP of Egypt? What is their unemployment and per capita income? I hear they are only afloat from U.S. aid. If you think a confessional Jewish state with a majority Jewish population is such a necessity that these people must be expelled, perhaps you should take them in along with Hagee, Huckabee and all the protestant millionaires preaching "bless Israel to be rich." Yesterday, a Christian Arab village was attacked by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Maybe you should send them a letter telling them to go to Egypt.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.osvnews.com/israeli-settlers-attack-christian-village-in-west-bank-leaving-3-dead-and-homes-burned/
Soldiers in the Israeli military have told the Israeli news outlet Haaretz that aid distribution centers in Gaza have become "a killing field," with military leadership ordering soldiers to fire on unarmed Palestinians....
ReplyDeletehttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-at-unarmed-palestinians-waiting-for-aid-report/ar-AA1HygYh?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=324317acf0de48d7c74594bd860f08b9&ei=8
The Cross will conquer!