A Response To David Rushworth Smith & 60 Years Of The State Of Israel & 60 Years Of The State Of Israel

By James Jacob Prasch 

As a Hebrew speaking evangelist to the Jews with 9 years  ministry in Israel who  directs a children’s AIDS ministry based in South Africa , there are two things I know acutely by experience and not by hear say or short term visits; the actual plight of believers (both Arab and Jewish) in The Holy Land and apartheid. On this basis I was appalled at what I can only describe as the ludicrously abject assertions in the unbelievably biased and imbalanced article by David Rushworth Smith. As Dr. Martin Luther King, a man who well understood apartheid and its American equivalent wrote: "Make no mistake, anti-Zionism is but anti Semitism”. I prefer to leave judging Mr. Rushworth Smith’s motives to others. I will however respond to his outlandish statements which he recklessly states as if they were factually established but in actuality are at best embellished half truths or worse concocted inventions.   .

I would first of all like to challenge him to produce the documented cases he claims of American Evangelical politicians whom he alleges repeatedly call for the forcible expulsion from the Holy Land of all Arabic speakers including Evangelical Christians. Whether this absurd accusation is a malicious fabrication he heard and naively believed or if he has Born False Witness I do not know. But it logically must be one or the other. I dare say he cannot furnish such proof because it does not exist.

He speaks of Israel as the culprit in the poverty of the Islamic population of Gaza and The West Bank. In fact the World Health Organization of The UN stated that in everything from decreased infant mortality, longevity, and employment the standard of living among West Bank Arabs prior to the Intifada increased 320% under Israeli rule, and 370% in Gaza. Hamas admits the fraud and embezzlement of international assistance by Arafat’s FATAH is what plunged them into poverty compounded by Israeli defensive closures necessitated by Islamic suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israel after the Israeli withdrawal. One of things Mr. Rushworth Smith omits is that from 1948 until 1967 The West Bank and Gaza were both under Arab control. If the Moslems Arabs (who then called themselves ‘Jordanians’) wanted a second Palestinian Arab state in addition to Jordan why did they not create one when they had nearly 20 years to do so?

He cites Israel for ignoring UN resolutions, when due to Islamic opposition the UN refuses to pass a single resolution against terror, ignored the Tienamen square massacres, the genocide in Rwanda , and the gross human rights abuses in the Arab Moslem world.

By his definition, one could argue that Alfred the Great was a terrorist. Terror speaks of attacking civilian targets in order to terrorize (as has been the consistent tactic of Hamas, Hizbollah, The Al Aqsa Brigade, and Al Qaeda that has killed not only in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but on the London tubes). A left wing British government withdrew the Balfour Declaration leaving countless Jews with no refuge from the Nazis and after the war forced Jewish holocaust survivors back into internment camps. Yes, they fought the British as did the Kenyan Mau Mau, the Irish Republicans, and others. But theirs’ was not the strategy of terror even warning to evacuate the King David Hotel and Deir Yassin. To cite a small lunatic fringe of left wing Jews as representative of anything other than the agenda of a sub-miniscule radical leftist faction is hideous.

So too is his citation of Arab Evangelicals adverse to Israel. What of former Palestinian Moslem terrorists converted to Christ such Walid Shoebat and Kamal Saleem, or Palestinian Arab Evangelist Asis Shorush who support Israel, to say nothing of Brigette Gabriel (whose family’s were saved from Islamic terror by the Israeli) or Yosef Fara of World Net Daily, or the numerous Arab Palestinian pastors I know all of whom support Israel such as Yosef Oudi and Shmuel Rin Said, because Israel is the one nation in The Middle East protecting the religious freedom and human rights of Arab believers. What of the 22,000 Arabs (many of the them Christian) who voluntarily serve in the Israeli military as over a quarter million have done in the past? Yet, David Rushworth Smith says he knows Arabs who are not sure of this. In reality the families of the 3.3 million Christians exterminated in Sudan, of the 60% of Iranian pastors martyred for their faith, and of the Christians persecuted in even moderate Arab countries such as Jordan , Egypt , and worse still Saudi Arabia , are all certainly quite sure. As soon as Israel left Gaza Hamas immediately closed the Christian book shops and placed “fatwah’s” on Moslem converts to Christ, as Iran is in the process of doing. Thank God that there is at least one Middle Eastern nation where our Arab brethren in Christ are safe, and that is Israel.

Mr. Rushworth Smith speaks of the 873,000 Arabs “herded out” of Israel in 1948. Again, it is difficult to find a euphemism for such demonstrably outlandish revisionism. In fact the United Arab Command instructed them to leave (against the appeal of the Israelis) until “The Jews were pushed into the sea”. Most Palestinian Arab refugees flooded into camps from Jordan in the 1971 aftermath of Black September when Arafat tried to depose the Hashemite regime in Jordan. Demographically most Palestinian Arabs moreover are the grand children of immigrants from surrounding Arab countries who entered illegally under the British; most were not there for centuries. The British government, the League of Nations , and The UN all recognized, as the archaeological record confirms, that the Jews as the indigenous people of The Holy Land when the modern state of Israel was established by the UN, not by terror as is insinuated.

Perhaps my primary revulsion at this horrific specimen of distorted history combined with badly manufactured invention is the omission of biblical prophetic references which Mr. Rushworth Smith avoids, especially the words of Jesus (Luke 21:24, Matthew 23:39).

After agreeing on TV to debate me on TV, Anglican cleric Stephen Sizer backed down. The same debate invitation is now cordially extended to David Rushworth Smith. Meanwhile, unless he is prepared to admit he wrote a false statement, I await proof of his charge of Evangelical American politicians repeatedly calling for the forced removal of Arabic speakers, inclusive of Evangelicals, from The Holy Land. Although my family was originally British, I was born in the USA, I spend much time in the USA and follow the American political scene closely, yet neither I nor the American branch of our ministry has ever heard of such thing so patently silly. It is my conviction that David Rushworth Smith sadly has not told the truth, and I would relish the opportunity to demonstrate it publicly.
                                                     
In the interests of Christian integrity and fairness (in which he himself appears deficient) I  am willing to accord David Rushworth Smith opportunity to prove he is not the contemptible liar he gives the appearance of being. 

It is also with a profound sense of disappointment that 'Evangelicals Now' would publish such a biased article built on such demonstrable revisionism and factual misrepresentation which I and others to whom I have spoken find it difficult to define as other anything other than an assortment of embellished half truths and what appear to be unmitigated lies told by a twisted propagandist masquerading as a Christian.

Surely the editorial policies of a periodical identifying itself as "Evangelical" should abide by biblical standards and principles. Evangelicals Now unfortunately do not, and therefore cannot be taken at face value to be biblically Evangelical or even fair and honest. Not that it matters to E-N, but by printing a litany of lies and half truths withholding a balanced and comprehensive presentation of applicable facts and not allowing a pointed response to those distortions, flagrantly violates the unambiguous teaching of The Word of God (Proverbs 18: 17). This exhibits the same manner of institutional biases that most of the secular media practices against saved Christians and Evangelical causes. Not only those who recognize the prophetic purposes of God for Israel should refrain from reading ’Evangelicals Now', but those interested in journalistic integrity and biblical ethics.

Concerning David Rushworth Smith, one's position on Israel does not determine if one is a Christian, but being a liar determines that one is not. Which American Evangelicals have made this demand Mr. David Rushworth Smith? I openly challenge you to support your claim or stand before The Body of Christ as a proven liar.