David Aaronovitch slams the left and justifies Israel

Last night I watched “Don’t Get Me Started” a TV series of documentaries which allows people the freedom to express and argue a point of view without the need for “balance” which often leads to stilted and unsubstantial TV.

His case was that the left wing have become morally degenerate in their support and “understanding” of nutty Islamic fascists like Hezbollah, Hamas etc..

The case was well made and damning. The cynical far lefties (”We are all Hisbollah now”) have a long history of forming corrupt alliances with whomever is likely to subvert Capitalism.

My problem was with the refusal to admit a moral equivalence with the Terrorist State of Israel. He claimed that Hezbollah targeted civilians but Israeli warplanes did not and that difference of intention makes all the difference.

But why were planes bombing Power stations, infrastructure and civilian areas in Beirut and many other places north of the combat zone? Was it not an attempt to terrorise and intimidate the Lebanese? Shock and awe tactics look like terror tactics to most people.
In a struggle as long and brutal as that between the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East historical justifications of either side can be made by selectively editing the story of the past. Israel was founded on bloody terrorism and horrific things have been done in the occupied territories to support armed land-grabbers.

Aaronovitch mentioned “antisemitism” as though it were a higher evil than every other kind of racism. Some misled dispensationalists may still agree but he needs to understand that there is a new generation of Christians to whom the Holocaust is just another sad chapter of history and not a justification for Israeli inhumanity.

One of the saddest thing about the violent planting of Israel has been the way Arab Christians have had the ground cut under them by, first, Arab Nationalism and, now, Islamic fascism with the help of Jewish and Christian Zionists.

The Lord, the God of Israel, is being blasphemed by both sides in this godless struggle.

I am leaving Tiscali - hooray!!

After spending another 15 minutes on a national rate line at my expense I finally got through to the Tiscali cancellation line. They said they could get a “Senior Technician” on my case to solve my connection problem. I said that was what their complaints people said ten days ago and “Yes, I really do want to cancel my account.”

I will have to wait until 30th September to finish my term (why??) and then “allow ten to 15 days for BT to remove the Tiscali tag from my line”. It will be worth the wait.

The Sanctity of Human Life.. a meaningless concept

Christian people react with an instinctive disgust to abortion on demand and medical murder of the handicapped or terminally ill.

It is an offence to us because we see human life as valuable and the nearest thing on earth to the life of the eternal God. We rightly invoke the Bible teaching about mankind bearing the image of God.

But we have also adopted the silly slogan of the “Sanctity” of human life.

In other words, our reverence of the Holy God is to be reflected in our reverence for the holiness of human existence. God is holy therefore his image is also holy.

This is not a reasonable position since God does not treat us as holy. He has cursed us and laid burdens of grief, frustration and death upon us precisely because we have lost our essential holiness.

Humanity is unholy, unsanctified and lost.

Nevertheless, we are not without value. Christ has died to save the world and his sacrifice revalues us all. Everyone deserves respect and no one is to be despised. The redeemer has placed a value on every scrap of humanity including the unborn child.

Where there is faith in Christ there is a sanctity which comes as a gift from God. Believers in Jesus are often called “saints” in the New Testament - even where their behaviour falls far short of their new designation.

Right wing campaigners seem to believe in the sanctity of unborn Western lives and that adult Middle Eastern lives are unholy and cheap. Would it not be better to say that all human life is valuable and not to be wasted?

It may be necessary to kill in some extreme circumstances but killing the unborn for economic or social reasons is as shameful as waging war for such low purposes.

Tiscali and BT fiasco

Further to my last post, it is now Tuesday and we are no further forward. Both BT and Tiscali have made calls from “customer service representatives”. Tiscali told my wife that they would be a few days solving the problem. It is as if they only started on the issue after my threat to leave. A BT rep rang to ask if I was “happy” with the way the problem had been resolved. I told him I was not happy, it was not resolved and by the way my dial-up connection which I was using was slow and erratic. After telling him this twice he then asked whether I was talking about broadband or dial-up, because broadband was not BT’s responsibility. I asked him to pay attention and he put the phone down.

This is what happens when people have work targets related to activity rather than results.
Today I rang Tiscali’s disconnection number - yes it is a national rate number! After an expensive quarter hour I got through to a rep who asked me to call back later because their computer system was “down”. I insisted he made a note of my phone number with pencil and paper and tell the management that this customer was going.

Tiscali and BT - aaaarrrggh

This Blog, like most of my online life has been sabotaged by the carelessness of BT and Tiscali.  I will not bore you with the ugly details.  I have been offline for nearly three weeks at home and I am using the Freeola network in the church office.  That went down for a day too and the difference in competence and helpfulness between Freeola (brilliant) and Tiscali/BT (abysmal) is a yawning chasm of contrast.

Tiscali have until 5pm today to sort themselves out otherwise our relationship is over.